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RFK Jr. Wants Federal Health Data for His Claims That Vaccines Are Unsafe, Trump Transition Co-Chair Says
A co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team said Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can try to show vaccines are unsafe and lead to them being pulled from the market in a second Trump administration.
The comments by Howard Lutnick are raising concerns among public health experts that giving influence to one of the most prominent antivaccine activists in the world could lead to what one said would be “severe health consequences” for Americans, especially children. The comments came days before the Nov. 5 election and as Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Kamala Harris are vying to sway late-deciding voters to their side.
Lutnick echoed a number of Kennedy’s debunked antivaccine talking points in a CNN interview, including falsehoods about the vaccine schedule and the disproven theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump has talked often about how Kennedy, who suspended his own presidential bid and endorsed him in August, will have a big role to play if the former president returns to the White House.
Trump Doesn’t Rule out Banning Vaccines if He Becomes President: ‘I’ll Make a Decision’
Former President Donald Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a “big role in the administration” if he wins Tuesday, telling NBC News in a phone interview that he is open to some of his more controversial ideas.
Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent this year before he dropped his bid and endorsed Trump, has long spread conspiracies and falsehoods about vaccines and other public health matters. He has, for example, frequently claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, even though studies have debunked that theory for decades.
Asked Sunday whether banning certain vaccines would be an option during a second term, Trump didn’t rule it out. “Well, I’m going to talk to [Kennedy] and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” Trump said.
Do the Covid Vaccines Provide Long-Lasting Protection?
In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that high-risk adults get a second updated COVID-19 vaccine to bolster their protection against the virus.
The agency now recommends that people ages 65 and up and those with weakened immune systems get a second dose of the 2024-25 vaccine six months after their first dose.
It’s not the first time the agency has advised or allowed for an additional dose for at-risk groups several months after the first. In the spring of 2022, officials authorized a second booster dose after the initial fall rollout. The same pattern followed in the spring of 2023 and the spring of 2024.
No other vaccines are given at such a high frequency, but experts say there’s no reason to believe that the vaccines — and in particular, the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna — aren’t effective.
Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines were the first to use mRNA technology to induce immunity to a virus, an approach that proved critical in the early days of the pandemic because mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster than traditional vaccines.
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Polio Vaccination Campaign to Resume in Northern Gaza
The World Health Organization reported:
A third phase of the polio vaccination campaign is set to begin tomorrow in part of the northern Gaza Strip after being postponed from Oct. 23 due to lack of access and assured, comprehensive humanitarian pauses, intense bombardment, and mass evacuation orders. These conditions made it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination and to organize campaign activities.
The humanitarian pause necessary to conduct the campaign has been assured; however, the area of the pause has been substantially reduced compared to the first round of vaccination in northern Gaza, conducted in September. It is now limited to just Gaza City.
Though in the past few weeks, at least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from North Gaza towards Gaza City for safety, around 15,000 children under ten years in towns in North Gaza like Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun still remain inaccessible and will be missed during the campaign, compromising its effectiveness.
To interrupt poliovirus transmission, at least 90% of all children in every community and neighborhood must be vaccinated. This will be challenging to achieve given the situation.
The final phase of the campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under ten years old in northern Gaza with a second dose of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints.
BioNTech Reports Surprising COVID Vaccine Sales in Q3 but Tempers Expectations for Annual Sales
BioNTech reported surprisingly strong sales of its COVID-19 vaccine in the third quarter, which reached €1.24 billion ($1.35 billion) and more than doubled the consensus estimate of $652 million.
It was a 39% boost on revenue year over year. The German company credited early approvals in a variety of areas where different vaccines have been created to account for regional strains. The quick adaption of new shots comes from “the flexibility of our mRNA technology,” Ozlem Tureci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer, said on a conference call.
Despite the sales success during the quarter, BioNTech said it expects annual revenue from the shot to come in at the low end of its guidance window for the year, which remains at €2.5 billion to €3.1 billion ($2.7 billion to $3.2 billion). The company cited inventory write-downs, anticipated revenues from its pandemic preparedness contract with Germany and other charges related to its COVID-19 vaccine partnership with Pfizer that “negatively influence” annual revenues.
