The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting a broad investigation into possible deaths linked to Covid-19 vaccines, in children but also adults, a spokesman for Donald Trump's vaccine-skeptic Health Secretary confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
This review comes at a time when more and more voices are being raised to denounce the increasing politicization of health agencies by Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who has launched a profound overhaul of American vaccination policy.
"The FDA is conducting a thorough investigation into several age groups regarding deaths potentially linked to Covid vaccines," Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the department, told AFP, confirming reports from Bloomberg and the Washington Post.
The effectiveness and safety of Covid-19 vaccines have been documented by numerous studies, as has the existence of very rare cases of serious side effects which do not call into question the value of vaccination in most age groups, according to various health authorities around the world.
When questioned by AFP, the spokesperson declined to specify when the conclusions of this investigation, whose methods and data used remain unclear, would be presented.
This review, which was initially intended to focus on possible child deaths, has sparked controversy in recent weeks following the leak of an internal document in late November. Attributed to a senior FDA official, the memo claimed that these vaccines are linked to at least 10 child deaths without providing any evidence.
A dozen former FDA officials have since expressed concern and called for caution, noting that "no explanation of the process and analyses that led to this new retrospective judgment" has been disclosed.
And Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is also known for having spread false information and conspiracy theories on the subject.
During the pandemic, he had described these vaccines as "the deadliest ever made" and suggested, at a press event, that the virus was "ethnically targeted" to harm black and white people while sparing "Ashkenazi and Chinese people."
He later denied making those statements.
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