Article Summary:
The FDA, now led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has severely restricted the use of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will now only be available to high-risk individuals and not administered to those who may need it to protect others.
The new restrictions mean that healthy people over 65 won’t be able to get the Novavax vaccine, even if they have an immunocompromised friend or family member. Critics have slammed the restrictions as being in line with Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism, and former CDC adviser Dr. Camille Kotton called it “a dark day in American medicine.”
The vaccine’s approval requires further studies into potential heart conditions, and one study may cost tens of millions of dollars. Dr. Ofer Levy, a vaccine adviser to the FDA, acknowledged the need to ensure vaccine safety but questioned whether the regulations are becoming too burdensome.
Despite the Novavax vaccine’s previous emergency use authorization, the FDA has given full approval to vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna under the Biden administration. Both companies are producing updated versions of their vaccines for the fall.
The Independent’s mission of “making change happen” has never been more important, as the public grapples with the implications of the Novavax vaccine restrictions and the broader debate surrounding vaccine policies.
Article Excerpt:
Dr. Paul Offit is a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I think the goal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is to make vaccines less available, more expensive, and more feared,” he told the paper. “His goal is to tear away at the vaccine infrastructure, because he believes that vaccines are not beneficial and are only harmful.”