FDA approves latest versions of COVID vaccines but under new ‘framework’

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

As the school year kicks off and the seasons change, the latest version of COVID-19 vaccines will soon be available – but not to everyone.

The newest COVID-19 vaccines will not be mass-marketed to the general public as their predecessors have, and that’s because, though the Food and Drug Administration approved them, it has placed greater restrictions on their use than ever before.

These vaccines may be administered to adults 65 and older, younger people with medical conditions that put them at a high risk of severe COVID.

In a post on X, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., hailed the new restrictions as a step in the right direction as part of a “framework” he promised Americans he would use. They’re available to those who want them yet unmandated, according to Kennedy, and some – which were only available to young children through emergency provisions – are no longer. He has also demanded that companies perform placebo-controlled trials and look into possible negative health impacts of the vaccines.

“The American people demanded science, safety, and common sense. This framework delivers all three,” he wrote.

He also said that the vaccines were available to “all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors,” but the vaccines’ manufacturers have said they are authorized for use only in the populations already described with the only difference being the minimum age required. Moderna’s vaccine can be given to children as young as six months old with qualifying underlying medical conditions; Pfizer’s, to the same group of children ages five and up, and Novavax’s, to children 12 and up with those conditions.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel is supposed to meet in September and vote on recommending the vaccines, which will greatly influence their rollout.