The Dangers of Denying All Vaccine-Related Deaths

"On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Vinay Prasad, the FDA's top vaccine regulator, made a claim that shocked the public-health establishment. "For the first time," he wrote in a leaked email to his staff, "the US FDA will acknowledge that COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children." The agency had supposedly identified at least 10 children who died from getting COVID shots. To say the email was poorly received by vaccine experts and physicians would be an understatement. Prasad's claim provoked a rapid series of rebuttals."

"Prasad is among the public-health officials who, under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have been systematically undermining the nation's confidence in immunizations. Prasad has not yet offered up any documentation to support his assertion, and his count of vaccine-related deaths may well turn out to be inflated. The memo's overheated rhetoric and lengthy recitation of political grievances also raise some doubts about his claims."

An FDA vaccine regulator claimed that the agency identified at least ten American children who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines. The claim prompted rapid, forceful rebuttals from vaccine experts, physicians, and 12 former FDA commissioners who said reported cases had already been reviewed and reached different conclusions. Some experts said no evidence links COVID-19 vaccines to child deaths and accused the regulator of fabricating or misinterpreting data. The regulator has not provided documentation, and his reported count may be inflated. The episode has intensified debate over vaccine safety, evidence, and political dynamics surrounding immunization confidence.

Read at The Atlantic