The United States Food and Drug Administration plans to present data allegedly linking COVID-19 vaccinations to dozens of child deaths, according to multiple reports. The agency plans to present this data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next week.
The report, described by multiple anonymous sources to the Washington Post, appears to cite information submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, known as VAERS. The database includes unverified entries of negative experiences relating to vaccines.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which manages the information, stresses that a report alone doesn’t prove a vaccine caused an adverse reaction. Should a report of a death make it to VAERS, the agency said it will follow up and make a formal determination after an investigation.
The Post reported that FDA officials plan to use at least 25 child death claims in their presentation before a panel of advisers tasked with forming new vaccine recommendations for different coronavirus variants. Most importantly, the panel will advise on which groups of Americans should be inoculated and who should receive it with government subsidies.
CNN reported that FDA Senior Adviser for Clinical Sciences Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg is preparing the report.
News of the report comes a week after President Donald Trump questioned whether COVID-19 vaccines work as intended.
In a social media post from earlier in September, Trump said he had seen “great numbers” from pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer but questioned why the companies aren’t more forthcoming with their data.
“With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” Trump said in the post.
Medical skepticism
News of the FDA using VAERS brought skepticism from some medical professionals who said the information isn’t vetted.
“Manipulating VAERS is one of the oldest tricks in the anti-vax book,” said Angela Lynn Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, in a post to X. “There was no meaningful analysis here. This decision was already made and VAERS is being used to manufacture justification.”
Rasmussen said the decision will lead to deaths.
Public opinion on vaccine deaths
The American public remains deeply divided on the thought that COVID-19 vaccines killed people.
A survey released Thursday by Rasmussen Reports, a pollster often used by Republicans, found 56% of likely U.S. voters consider it likely that side effects from COVID-19 vaccines have caused “a significant number of unexplained deaths.” More than one-third told the pollster that it’s not likely there were significant deaths from COVID-19 vaccines, including 17% who think it’s “Not At All Likely.”
Pulse Opinion Research conducted the poll from Sept. 7-9. It received 1,158 responses with a 3% sampling error.
