FDA: Covid vaccines ‘related’ to the deaths of least 10 children
Covid-19 vaccines were related to the deaths of at least 10 children in the United States between 2021 and 2024, a Food and Drug Administration official said in a controversial memo circulated on Friday. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo
Covid vaccinations were related to the deaths of at least 10 children between 2021 and 2024, an official with the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Dr. Vinay Prasad issued the finding in a 3,000-word memo obtained by NBC News.
“This is a profound revelation,” Prasad said in the memo. “For the first time, the U.S. FDA will acknowledge Covid-19 vaccines have killed American children.”
Prasad said CBER staff examined 96 deaths of children that were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System from 2021 to 2024 and determined at least 10 were related to covid-19 vaccines.
He accused the FDA of ignoring vaccine safety concerns for several years and said the actual number of vaccine-related deaths might be higher among the nation’s children.
The memo did not list the vaccines’ makers, the ages of the children or any potential health issues that might have been involved, according to the New York Times.
Prasad recommended the FDA revise its regulations for vaccine approvals, but no study has been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Instead, he circulated copies of his memo among FDA staff members on Friday and said the children in question died from myocarditis, which refers to heart inflammation.
Prasad said he will suggest a variety of new federal guidelines for approving a vaccine.
Pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit criticized Prasad’s memo as “science by press release” and called it “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” NBC News reported.
Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
He said the memo does not provide evidence to support the claim that the deaths were related to covid vaccines.