The Department of Health and Human Services has defended cuts to vaccine research with statements that mislead on the safety of mRNA technology, despite an extensive history of testing.
In the past two weeks, U.S. public health authorities have skirted normal procedures and announced two major policy changes that will likely reduce access to COVID-19 vaccines and restrict use to higher-risk populations. Here, we explain what we know — and don’t — about these new COVID-19 vaccine policies.
In recent interviews, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has minimized the risk COVID-19 poses to kids and exaggerated the risk of the vaccine, incorrectly claiming that the shot poses a “profound risk” to children. While serious side effects can occur, they are rare, and have not been shown to outweigh the benefits of the vaccine in protecting against COVID-19.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has misleadingly claimed that vaccines are not tested in placebo-controlled trials. Now, an HHS spokesperson has used similar language in a statement that falsely said there’s little available evidence on whether vaccines are safe.
In Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first interview as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, he made multiple incorrect or misleading statements, including about seed oils, an abortion drug and the notion that the U.S. has the “sickest population in the world.”
President Donald Trump this month issued an executive order prohibiting discretionary federal funds from going to schools and colleges or universities that require students to get a COVID-19 vaccine. But there currently are no states that require the vaccines for students, and only a few colleges or universities continue to have such a mandate.
Here, we explain the facts behind several more of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims during his two Senate hearings as nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
In his first Senate confirmation hearing to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated claims we have written about before on vaccines and chronic disease.
Fox News health commentator Dr. Kelly Powers was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in July 2020, months before COVID-19 vaccines were made available in the U.S. But social media posts are baselessly linking her death on Dec. 4 to the vaccines. There is no evidence that the vaccines cause or worsen cancer.
An abundance of evidence indicates the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are remarkably safe and work well to protect against severe disease. But last month, the state of Florida issued updated vaccine guidance advising “against the use” of the shots entirely — even for people who are older and at higher risk of severe disease. Experts say the advice is ill-informed and “illogical.”