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Drugmakers Fall on Report US to Claim Covid Shots Killed Kids
Vaccine makers’ shares fell after a report that Trump health officials plan to link COVID-19 shots to the deaths of around two dozen children in a presentation to advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) next week.
The Washington Post reported Friday that a group of health officials appear to have used the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, to tie the deaths of 25 children to COVID-19 vaccines. A high-profile advisory committee that Kennedy revamped to include vaccine critics is scheduled to discuss the shots from companies including Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and BioNTech SE at its meeting next week.
Moderna shares dropped as much as 8.7% during trading in New York Friday. Pfizer shares fell as much as 3.6%. BioNTech’s US-traded shares sank as much as 14%.
“FDA and CDC staff routinely analyze VAERS and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Pfizer could not immediately be reached for comment. BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cardiologist Links COVID-19 Vaccines to Cancer in the British Royal Family
Dr. Rath Health Foundation reported:
A storm of controversy has erupted in Britain after a well-known cardiologist suggested that COVID-19 vaccines may have played a role in the cancer diagnoses of King Charles III and the Princess of Wales. Speaking at the Reform U.K. political party conference, Dr. Aseem Malhotra said it was “highly likely” that the shots had been “a significant factor” in the cancers suffered by the pair. His remarks, which he attributed to information given to him by Professor Angus Dalgleish, one of the U.K.’s most eminent oncologists, drew furious reactions from health officials and the legacy/mainstream media.
Yet they also revive some key questions that have never been fully addressed. In particular, were these vaccines developed so quickly that they essentially formed the largest medical experiment in history? When the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out in late 2020, politicians promised they would be a game-changing solution to the pandemic. With unprecedented speed, new technologies based on RNA and DNA were rushed to the market.
In normal circumstances, vaccine development can take a decade or more, involving years of rigorous testing for safety and long-term effects. This time, however, the process was compressed into a matter of months. Regulatory agencies around the world were pressured to approve the shots using ‘emergency use’ authorizations, despite the absence of long-term safety data. Critics warned that this meant gambling with people’s health on a scale never seen before, but few authorities listened.
What the FDA’s DTC Drug Ad Crackdown Means for Pharma Companies
President Trump signed a memorandum, on Sept. 9, directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “to ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising including by increasing the amount of information regarding any risks associated with the use of any such prescription drug.” Very shortly after the presidential memo was signed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and HHS announced an aggressive crackdown on deceptive direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in a joint press release.
After years of lax oversight, the agency says it will no longer tolerate these deceptive tactics and will rely on available tech-enabled enforcement tools like AI to monitor and review drug ads. With both agencies backing these efforts, companies face greater scrutiny and tougher compliance demands, creating uncertainty about what additional requirements might be imposed.
“This is going to have a very large impact on the pharmaceutical industry,” Osama Hashmi, M.D., M.P.H., CEO and co-founder of Impiricus, said in an interview.
“Pharmaceutical companies spend about 25% of their budget on advertising, and a significant portion of that is directed toward patients,” he continued, referencing FDA’s press release. “Now, with more regulations, companies will have to evaluate the cost-benefit of doing DTC advertisements and ask what the potential consequences are.”
Ebola Vaccine Reaches Epicenter of Congo Outbreak as Officials Race to Contain Spread
Limited access and required funding are the key challenges facing health officials trying to respond to the latest Ebola outbreak in southern Congo, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
It is the first Ebola outbreak in 18 years in Kasai province, a remote part of Congo with poor road networks, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the nation’s capital of Kinshasa.
A United Nations peacekeeping helicopter was used to help deliver 400 vaccine doses to the epicenter, in the locality of Bulape, on Friday, Patrick Otim, WHO’s programme area manager, told a briefing in Geneva. An additional 1,500 doses will be sent from the capital of Kinshasa, he said.
