The Food and Drug Administration said the shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax will remain available to seniors and people with high-risk health conditions, but healthy children and most younger adults will no longer automatically qualify
U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines but limited their use for many Americans, a move Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cast as proof that his administration is keeping its promises to scale back mass vaccination.
The Food and Drug Administration said the shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax will remain available to seniors and people with high-risk health conditions, but healthy children and most younger adults will no longer automatically qualify.
Kennedy, who campaigned on ending vaccine mandates and narrowing access to what he calls “science, safety and common sense,” hailed the FDA‘s action as a watershed moment. “I promised four things: to end COVID vaccine mandates; to keep vaccines available to people who want them, especially the vulnerable; to demand placebo-controlled trials; and to end the emergency,” he wrote on X. “In a series of FDA actions today we accomplished all four goals.”
Why It Matters
Meanwhile, new cases of COVID-19 are increasing nationwide, fueled by the Stratus variant, an emerging offshoot of the Omicron variant.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national test positivity rate hit 9.9 percent in the past week, up 1.4 percent from last week. CDC data show the sharpest increases are in the U.S. South, where test positivity rates in some states have hit 15 percent.
What To Know
The FDA’s decision breaks sharply from previous U.S. policy, which recommended annual COVID-19 shots for nearly everyone 6 months and up. Now, seniors remain broadly eligible, but anyone younger must show they have at least one qualifying medical condition such as asthma, diabetes or obesity. Millions of Americans could find themselves unable to get vaccinated unless they prove their risk — or pay out of pocket if insurers decline coverage.
The agency also revoked Pfizer’s emergency authorization for children under 5, leaving Moderna’s Spikevax as the only mRNA vaccine option for the youngest kids. But Moderna’s shot is only approved for children with serious health problems. Novavax’s protein-based vaccine remains restricted to those 12 and older, again only for patients with high-risk conditions.
Kennedy said the changes demonstrate a new, more cautious approach to federal health policy. “The American people demanded science, safety, and common sense. This framework delivers all three,” he posted, thanking FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary for his leadership.
More at:
RFK Jr. Celebrates as FDA Ends COVID Vaccine Mandate
Kennedy posted on X that he had kept his promises to end the mandates, keep vaccines available to the vulnerable, demand placebo-controlled trials, and put a lid on the COVID emergency.
Kennedy posted on X that he had kept his promises to end the mandates, keep vaccines available to the vulnerable, demand placebo-controlled trials, and put a lid on the COVID emergency.
It came on Wednesday amid reports that the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, had been ousted amid disagreements over Kennedy’s vaccine policies.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. boasted about fulfilling his pledge to end COVID vaccine mandates after the Food and Drug Administration announced new restrictions on the shots.
RFK Jr. took his victory lap after the FDA approved new COVID-19 vaccines for the fall season, but with some caveats.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for use in Americans aged 65 and older.
Those between the ages of 5 and 64 must have a minimum of one underlying medical condition that puts them at risk of developing severe illness from COVID to be immediately eligible for the shot.
Healthy children can still get the vaccine, but only after consulting a medical provider.
“The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded,” RFK Jr. wrote in a post on X.
In the same post, Kennedy wrote that the Moderna shot would be available for children 6 months and older, while kids 5 years and older can receive the Pfizer shot, and those 12 years and older can receive the Novavax shot.
These age requirements only apply to high-risk children.
The 2025-2026 vaccine will target the LP.8.1 variant, the companies said in a press release. This sublineage makes up almost a third of all cases.
President Donald Trump told Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday that he is doing a “great job” investigating the reason for an increase in autism diagnoses. / Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
These new restrictions mark the strictest yet for COVID-19 vaccinations. They come on the heels of an exclusive Daily Beast report detailing Kennedy’s eyeing of a total removal of the shots from the market.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist and close associate of RFK Jr., claimed that the Trump administration would move to pull the vaccine “within months.”
Malhotra said a 2022 peer-reviewed paper by a group of physicians, university professors, and researchers has driven much of the skepticism around the vaccine among RFK Jr.’s circle.
The paper, which appeared in the journal Vaccine, said those who receive the mRNA vaccine are at a 16 percent greater risk of “excess serious adverse events,” compared to those in the placebo group.
The study has been criticized by some in the medical community, who argue that it underestimates the benefits and overemphasizes the risks, attributing this to biased data selection and methodological flaws.
In addition, Americans may be paying more than ever for the vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel would typically meet after an FDA approval to make recommendations on the vaccine’s use.
However, in June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the advisory panel. Insurers rely on this panel to decide on what they will and won’t cover.
According to the CDC’s vaccine price list, a COVID-19 vaccine could cost over $140 for just one dose in the private sector.
In a statement to The New York Times, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which covers 1 in 3 Americans, will continue to check the federal government’s guidelines on immunizations.
In states like California, Florida, and Massachusetts, laws require that pharmacy staff can only administer vaccinations recommended by the CDC.
More at:
Google under fire as its AI rakes in millions by telling users to eat rocks and put glue on pizza
Don’t believe everything Google tells you.
Otherwise, you could end up thinking scientists recommend eating rocks, Snoopy assassinated Abraham Lincoln, pizza is better with glue, and a goldendoodle played in the NBA.
These are all false claims presented at the top of Google searches by its artificial intelligence feature AI Overviews.
The tool summarizes results at the top of the page, with many readers taking them as fact and not delving further.
But experts warn that dangerous and less obvious misinformation is being spread with Google’s AI features – making both the company and sources of the misinformation millions of dollars in the process.
‘Whether it’s to boost herbal remedies, supplements or junk, they make money off it,’ Syracuse University Professor of Information Studies Jennifer Stromer-Galley told Daily Mail.
‘We are increasingly not able to trust any information that comes into our search feeds.’
Even after years of improvement by top software engineers, AI results still present wildly outlandish claims.
The latest false story pushed to the top of results, and spotted by Daily Mail this weekend, was the claim that rapper Eminem performed at the funeral of Jeff Bezos’s mother, and that Elon Musk attended. The information was presented before the funeral was even held.
Last month, the Dallas Express spotted Google Overviews claiming without any evidence that Diana Ross was arrested for cocaine possession and went to rehab in 1992.
Google said it gets the ‘vast majority’ of responses right, and its team ‘take action’ when they find mistakes.
Some of the doubtful pronouncements by Google’s AI are ‘hallucinations’, the name for mistakes in its functioning.
But more sinister sites peddling fake news and raking in money from adverts are reportedly gaming Google’s algorithms so that the AI picks them to be prominently featured.
French journalist Jean-Marc Manach has identified over 4,000 sites pushing misinformation that was itself generated by AI, and often promoted by Google.
Manach reported that more than 100 of them are in English, and are tailored to get chosen for Google’s Discover feature, a feed of articles placed prominently in the Google App which many readers use to keep up with current affairs, and which serves up content based on readers’ preferences using AI.
More at:
More Stories
The Chief Justice and His Wife Took $20 Million From Firms He Rules On. I’m Filing for His Disbarment Today
Surprise! En-Banc Appellate Court Restores ‘Ten Commandments’ Law in Texas
NEW: Iran Caves, Declares Strait of Hormuz “Completely Open” for All Commercial Ships – Trump Responds