Drugmakers fall on report US to claim Covid shot killed kids

[WASHINGTON] Vaccine makers’ shares fell after a report that US President Donald Trump health officials plan to link Covid shots to the deaths of around two dozen children in a presentation to advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) next week.

The Washington Post reported Friday (Sep 12) that a group of health officials appear to have used the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or Vaers, to tie the deaths of 25 children to Covid vaccines. A high-profile advisory committee that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr revamped to include vaccine critics is scheduled to discuss the shots from companies including Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech at its meeting next week.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is also scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for measles, hepatitis B and Covid, according to a draft agenda posted Friday evening. Presentations on Covid vaccine safety data and an economic analysis of Covid vaccinations are also scheduled.

Moderna shares dropped 7.4 per cent in New York on Friday. Pfizer shares fell 4 per cent, while BioNTech’s US-traded shares sank 7.3 per cent.

Covid vaccines have become a political flash point in recent weeks as conflict between Kennedy and former CDC director Susan Monarez led to her ouster just weeks into her job. Kennedy has previously claimed that the shots crafted during Trump’s first administration – largely credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic – cause deadly complications, despite rigorous studies involving millions of people that found serious side effects are rare.

Vaers collects copious amounts of unfiltered data in an effort to detect early signs of side effects. Reports can be submitted by anyone and no effort is made to verify the details or prevent duplication, a format that scientific researchers said makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions.

“(The Food and Drug Administration) (FDA) and CDC staff routinely analyse Vaers and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said. 

In a statement, Moderna said the safety of its Covid vaccine, Spikevax, is “rigorously monitored” by the company, the FDA and regulators in more than 90 countries. Safety monitoring systems have not identified any new or undisclosed safety concerns in children or in pregnant women, the company said, adding that research “continues to demonstrate a favourable risk-benefit profile for Spikevax”.

Pfizer said extensive data supports the safety and effectiveness of its Covid vaccine. The shot has been administered to more than one billion adults, adolescents and children, “generating robust data which demonstrate a favourable safety profile,” it said in a statement.

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BioNTech did not respond to a request for comment.

A 2022 Lancet study of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults who received messenger RNA Covid vaccines found no known deaths, with most patients recovering within 90 days.

The data system

The FDA had already indicated it was investigating reports of children dying due to the Covid vaccine. 

“There have been children that have died from the Covid vaccine,” FDA commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month. “We’re doing a proper investigation. We’re going to release a report in the coming few weeks.”

Patients, healthcare providers, caregivers and companies are encouraged to notify the agency about adverse events following immunisation, “even if they are not sure the vaccine caused the problem,” according to the CDC, which manages the Vaers database with the FDA. 

Yet Vaers warns that some of these reports “represent true vaccine reactions and others are coincidental adverse health events and not related to vaccination”, according to its fact sheet. “Overall, a causal relationship cannot be established using information from Vaers report alone.”

For 2021, there were more than 11,000 reports of deaths. While many mentioned Covid shots, it’s impossible to know from the database alone if they stemmed from the shots. Many of the submissions detailed “breakthrough” Covid infections, the ones that happened after a patient was vaccinated. This makes it possible that the virus – not the shot – was deadly. 

Even Kennedy has raised concerns about the system’s reliability. “It’s outrageous that we don’t have a surveillance system that functions,” he said at an event in Indiana in April. 

Kennedy has long said that the government should focus more on vaccine injuries. Before taking office, he made money connecting people with claims of vaccine harm to a law firm that sued manufacturers. More recently, his allies in Congress have hosted hearings featuring people who said their family members experienced vaccine injuries.

The Washington Post report came as the CDC reported that Covid hospitalisation rates are peaking nationwide. The virus has contributed to more than 15,000 deaths in 2025 through the first week of September, according to the agency. BLOOMBERG