President Donald Trump speaks during an Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 8, 2020. Trump on Monday said he wants pharmaceutical companies to “justify the success” of the COVID-19 vaccines. File photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI | License Photo
President Donald Trump on Monday said he wants pharmaceutical companies to “justify the success” of the COVID-19 vaccines, though he has always touted the “warp speed” success of the shots developed during his administration amid the pandemic in 2020.
The president cast doubt on the vaccine despite rigorous trials to determine efficacy and safety before receiving government approval. Subsequently, numerous studies have shown they are lifesavers and safe.
“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!”
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration set limits on who can receive the shot — adults 65 and older and patients at higher risk of severe illness. And Susan Monarez was fired Wednesday as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after refusing to resign because of differences with Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy on vaccine policy.
Several other top CDC officials resigned in citing differences with Kennedy, a long-time skeptic of all vaccines who was a lawyer prior to leading the HHS and has no formal education in science.
On May 27, Kennedy said in a video announcement that healthy pregnant women were being removed from the immunization schedule for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Despite a policy change, the CDC touts the shots as a good thing.
“Everyone ages 6 months and older is recommended to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine, including if you are pregnant, breastfeeding a baby, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future,” one CDC webpage reads.
“Studies including hundreds of thousands of people around the world show that COVID-19 vaccination before and during pregnancy is safe, effective, and beneficial to both the pregnant woman and the baby. The benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy.”
Last week, the FDA rescinded the remaining emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccine.
The CDC also has been beset with layoffs and a gunman who shot at headquarters in Atlanta late last month, claiming the vaccine made him sick.
“With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” Trump said in the post. “I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???” the president wrote.
“They go off to the next ‘hunt’ and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work. … I OPERATION WARP SPEED was as “BRILLIANT” as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why??? Thank you for your attention to this very important matter!”
Unvaccinated adults were hospitalized with COVID-19 at 10.5 times higher than vaccinated adults who had received a booster dose during the Omicron variant’s predominance, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine study of 192,000 adults in 2022.
Unvaccinated patients had a 2.46 times higher risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to vaccinated patients, according to a compilation of studies analyzed in 2023 by the National Institutes of Health of 21.6 million COVID-19 patients.
In May 2020, Trump ordered an accelerated development, manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. The first death in the United States was announced on Feb. 29, and ultimately 1.2 million people died though the CDC stopped tracking deaths in May 2023.
The vaccine, which first became available in December 2020 to healthcare personnel and residents of a long-term facilties, has been credited with saving several million lives. The next segment of people getting shots were those 65 and older, high-risk medical conditions other other essential wortjers.
Pfizer-BioNTech was granted emergency use authorization on Dec. 11 by the FDA with Moderna getting the OK on Dec. 18. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was granted on Feb. 27, 2021.
The federal government subsidized the cost of the vaccines, allowing everyone to get them for free.
Trump, who was hospitalized after contracting coronavirus on Oct. 2, received his first COVID-19 shot in January 2021, before he left the White House as president. A drug to lessen the effects of COVID-19, Pfizer’s Paxlovid, was granted emergency approval by the FDA in December 2021.
He referred to the shot as a “modern-day miracle” and recommended his supporters to get vaccinated.
Numerous supporters, however, have expressed skepticism of the shot, and he has always opposed mandates.
That includes Kennedy, a long-time skeptic of vaccines, who has pushed back on the efficacy of the vaccines. Last month, he canceled $500 million in grants for mRNA technology, which includes the Pfizer and Moderna shots.
On Monday, nine former and acting directors of the CDC, wrote a guest essay published in The New York Times that said Kennedy is “endangering” American health.
“What [Kennedy] has done to the CDC and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced,” the group wrote.
“We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security.”
Pfizer and Moderna have not responded to Trump’s statements.
“The likelihood of dying from COVID-19 infection far outweighs the extremely rare probability of dying from a vaccine-related adverse event,” Biology Insights wrote on July 23. “Studies indicate that cases of myocarditis due to COVID-19 infection are more severe and have higher mortality rates compared to vaccine-associated cases.”
