US health officials are reportedly planning to release data on child deaths and serious side effects they would attribute to Covid-19 vaccines, raising alarm among public health experts who say the publicly available data does not support these claims and the report may lead to increased anti-vaccine sentiment.
Independent advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later this week plan to revisit recommendations for Covid shots as well as vaccines for measles and hepatitis B.
The move is part of a larger effort to cast doubt on vaccines and reduce access to them, said David Gorski, a professor of surgery and oncology at Wayne State University who has tracked anti-vaccine activism for decades.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a longtime anti-vaxxer who continues to make sweeping, controversial changes to the US vaccine program, Gorski said.
“RFK Jr wants to take away your vaccines,” he said.
Officials are looking at 25 reports of paediatric deaths following Covid vaccination, apparently stemming from the crowdsourced database known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), according to reporting by the Washington Post.
Yet years of data and research show that Covid vaccinations are safe and effective.
Source: The Guardian, 16 September 2025
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