Trump’s CDC to launch bombshell Covid vaccine shakeup that could tank Big Pharma profits
President Donald Trump’s newly formed CDC is considering a shakeup to the Covid vaccine schedule.
Currently the agency recommends every American adult and child over the age of six months gets a yearly booster shot, which is out of line with most other countries.
The CDC’s outside panel of vaccine experts this week discussed narrowing the recommendations to only include people who are especially vulnerable to the disease – the elderly and those with conditions that put them at risk of severe infections.
If the plans go ahead, it could be another blow for the pharmaceutical giants behind the shots, which have seen their revenue and earnings drop significantly post-pandemic.
The vaccine committee met on Tuesday to discuss the issue as well as decide the vaccine schedules for other diseases for the 2025 season.
The meeting was controversially delayed for the first time in its history in February, which led to fears new health chief Robert F Kennedy Jr – a known vaccine skeptic – may have been looking to exert influence over the committee.
A vote on the idea could come at the next committee meeting, scheduled for June. The recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are traditionally then honored and implemented by the CDC.
While most members on the vaccine panel were not opposed to altering the recommendations, they voiced concerns around the difficulties of implementing the approach.
President Donald Trump’s newly formed CDC is tipped to launch a Covid vaccine shakeup that could crush big pharma profits
The vaccine committee met on Tuesday to discuss the issue as well as decide the vaccine schedules for other diseases for the 2025 season
Dr Denise Jamieson, a dean at the University of Iowa’s medical school and one of the panel members, said the US has a history of not being able to implement such variable recommendations and that COVID is still a leading cause of death among both adults and children.
‘I guess I am surprised we’re considering a risk-based recommendation,’ she said.
Dr Jamie Loehr, a family medicine doctor in New York and part of the panel, said he is happy the committee is considering a risk-based recommendation but also worried about feasibility and the message it would send.
‘Covid is still a fairly dangerous disease and very, very common,’ he highlighted.
‘We are not talking about 10 cases of mpox. We are talking about thousands of hospitalizations and deaths.’
There are currently around 500 Covid deaths per week across the US now compared to 25,000 at the peak in late 2020.
A majority of the CDC’s working group favored the risk-based approach compared to the current near universal recommendation.
The panel is set to vote on formal recommendations in its June meeting.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also voted on recommendations for use of three vaccines also discussed during the two-day meeting, shots for respiratory syncytial virus, chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease, and meningococcal vaccines.
There are currently around 500 Covid deaths per week across the US now compared to 25,000 at the peak in late 2020
The CDC currently recommends that individuals aged six months and older should be given an updated Covid-19 vaccine, regardless of previous inoculations for the disease. A graph shows the current vaccination coverage among adults in the US
The panel also discussed the ongoing US measles outbreak that has infected over 700 people this year, mostly among unvaccinated residents in Texas and New Mexico.
‘Today’s long-delayed ACIP meeting harks what we think are early indications of a more relaxed CDC under (Kennedy’s) purview of the HHS,’ Citi analysts said.
The CDC director typically signs off on the panel’s recommendations before they are implemented, but the agency does not currently have one.
President Donald Trump nominated Susan Monarez to lead the CDC after withdrawing the nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon, but she has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
An HHS spokesperson said CDC Chief of Staff Matthew Buzzelli would weigh in instead on the recommendations.
It comes amid low public enthusiasm about the Covid vaccines. Just 23.2 percent of adults over the age of 18 got their booster this year.
The CDC currently recommends that individuals aged six months and older should be given an updated Covid-19 vaccine, regardless of previous inoculations for the disease.
America’s recommendation makes it an outlier on Covid vaccines. Other countries like the UK and UK only recommend boosters for vulnerable children with chronic health problems.
The vaccine meeting was abruptly delayed in February just days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic, became head of the US Department of Health and Human Services
A potential risk-based recommendation would eat into the already dwindling Covid vaccine sales for drugmakers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, Citi analysts said in a research note.
In early 2020, Pfizer’s stock hovered around $37. By December 2021, it had surged to over $61 as its Covid jab rolled out across the world.
Moderna, a biotech newcomer at the time, closed 2020 at around $104, up more than 430 percent that year.
The following summer, its shares skyrocketed to $416, fuelled by record profits and unprecedented demand for its mRNA shot.
But as the pandemic waned and vaccine demand plummeted, both companies saw their share prices tumble dramatically.
Pfizer stock has more than halved from its peak, now sitting around $26 — a low not seen in over a decade.
Moderna’s fall has been even steeper, with shares shedding almost 90 percent of its value, dropping to just $42.
