Days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not supported by evidence, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked at least 10 children’s deaths to COVID-19 vaccinations in an internal report.
According to a New York Times report, an internal memo written by Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s vaccine division, released and did not say the children’s ages or whether they had any medical problems.
It did not even reveal the name of the vaccine manufacturer.
Prasad, an oncologist, advises the FDA commissioner and other senior officials on emerging medical and scientific issues affecting regulatory science and public health.
He sent a memo to agency staff outlining findings from a review of child death reports. He attributed them to myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle.
He was further quoted as calling the finding a “profound revelation”.
Prasad has been a fierce critic of the U.S.’s COVID vaccine and mask mandates, and in September he regained his role as the FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer.
Meanwhile, the director also said he would propose a series of new vaccine surveillance and reviews.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary confirmed the news during a television interview, according to Reuters.
In an interview on the ‘Fox & Friends’ show over the weekend, Makary cited data collected during the Biden administration and said, “It appears that there have been 10 child deaths as a result of the COVID injections.”
Makary added that the COVID vaccines released in 2020 were “wonderful for people at risk and for the elderly.”
But giving young people certain COVID shots every year “is not based on science,” he said.
Robert F. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccination crusader before taking the nation’s top health care job under President Donald Trump, also linked vaccines to autism and sought to rewrite the nation’s immunization policy.
Last week, in a review of its position on vaccines and autism, the CDC said the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had begun a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including an investigation of plausible biological mechanisms and potential causal links.
