Kennedy uses pseudo-science to justify holding up vaccine approval

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has provided a scientifically and factually inaccurate justification for placing a hold on approval of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine. In an interview with CBS television, Kennedy also reiterated his false assertion that prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death in America.

FDA’s non-political staff had planned to approve the vaccine prior to is April 1 PDUFA goal, but political appointees at HHS and FDA intervened. “There was no controversy. The review staff agreed it was an approval,” Peter Marks, the former director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) who was pushed out of the agency by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, said in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. ...