FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff
Source: Associated Press
FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff
By MATTHEW PERRONE
Updated 7:18 PM EDT, July 2, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday.
The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency’s vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.
Both vaccines were approved by the FDA in May after months of analysis by rank-and-file FDA reviewers.
But internal correspondence show Prasad disagreed with staffers who planned to approve the shots for everyone 12 and older, similar to previous COVID vaccines. The scientists had concluded the benefit from the vaccines and the risk of COVID-19 outweighed the risk of possible side effects, which are rare.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/covid-shots-fda-trump-kennedy-fda-overruled-3ac51f93225aa5f20d5840468fff8b02
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