'Most Restrictive Policy': Trump FDA Puts New Limits on Covid Vaccines and More Might Come via CDC

The FDA approved updated Covid vaccines, but limited who can get them now including removing one of the two vaccines available for young children. More restrictions might come from upcoming CDC vote.

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The FDA approved updated Covid vaccines, but limited who can get them now including removing one of the two vaccines available for young children, in what the New York Times calls “the federal government’s most restrictive policy since the vaccines became available.”

The new rules present barriers to millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk and millions more who might no longer qualify, the AP notes.

“The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. That presents new barriers to access for millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk — and millions more who may want to get vaccinated and suddenly no longer qualify.”

“Depending on the panel’s advice, Americans under age 65 could be expected to provide documentation of a serious medical problem before they can get a shot. Also complicating the rollout is the fact that pharmacists — who administer most COVID-19 shots — typically aren’t expected to collect that kind of information. And laws governing their ability to administer routine vaccinations vary by state,” the AP continued.

Here’s the Secretary’s tweet:

But that’s not all.

People will also soon face the “hurdle” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which must still vote to recommend the vaccine. While that used to be a given, the panel has been shaken up by “Health” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As the Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK, Jr. has overhauled the CDC to the extent that he has fired the entire vaccine advisory committee, changed vaccine recommendations, and implemented staffing cuts at the agency. He has also replaced some members with anti-Covid-19 vaxxers.

Weirdly, this attack on science is also an attack on the singular widely acknowledged achievement of Trump’s first term, which was Operation Warp Speed.

Days ago, the Daily Beast reported that the Trump administration would be banning the Covid-19 vaccines within months, a claim the administration dismissed as “wild speculation,” but here they are already limiting who can get it.

While it will be fairly easy for people who are privileged to work around these limits, those who are not privileged, including those who are not afforded automatic belief by their doctors, will face an increasingly challenging process for access. One issue will be insurance companies, who typically base what they cover on the recommendations of the CDC. So those who can pay $150 ish out of pocket will have access, and those who can’t afford it won’t at a time when grocery costs are skyrocketing.

This brings us to what I wrote when the report of a potential ban came up days ago:

If they do actually ban the vaccine (and let’s remember TACO specializes in backing down), Donald Trump and his grotesque entourage of Epstein-cover-up creeps will still have access to it. The elites will get all of the good stuff while everyone else is left to fend for themselves in a Hunger Games kind of hellscape if Trump has anything to say about it. This is just one more area where blue states will need to assert independence from this dangerously unsophisticated band of conspiratorialists.

Donald Trump’s doctrine: Safety, health and wealth only for the elites.

What do you think of the COVID vaccine changes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.