FDA commissioner on new COVID-19 vaccine rules: ‘Can’t be blind’

(NewsNation) — The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration says the agency will not overlook anything in developing new guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines.

“A lot of people report vaccine injury,” Dr. Marty Makary told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Tuesday. “A lot of people report complications, including children who have died from the vaccine. So we can’t just be blind.”

COVID-19 vaccine guidelines continue to be a hot button issue as President Trump is calling for drug companies to justify the success of the medicine nearly five years after the pandemic.

Trump wrote in part on Truth Social: “I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???”

Trump’s critics say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is being ripped apart by the vaccine debate, even though most medical experts say the evidence is clear that the vaccines worked.

Deadline to hand over COVID-19 vaccine data

Access to a COVID-19 vaccine is now more limited than it was four years ago. The FDA also recently narrowed its criteria for who qualifies for the vaccine and Makary wrote an op-ed explaining why the administration doesn’t support COVID-19 boosters forever.

Makary told NewsNation that it all comes down to two crucial questions.

“The American people want to know, are we supposed to keep going like this?” he said. “[And] do the benefits outweigh the risks? That is the question.”

Makary said, “we have an agreement … with the large vaccine makers that make the COVID vaccine that they will conduct a randomized control placebo trial and have those results back to us by May.”

The new study, which will begin this winter, will hopefully provide answers to whether the benefits outweigh the risks of the vaccine moving forward.

“Let’s blindfold ourselves and insist that everybody take this. Look at the last administration, rubber-stamping COVID boosters every year with no updated clinical trial,” Makary said.

“We don’t believe in COVID vaccine boosters forever unless we have evidence to support it. We’re bringing back gold standard science and common sense.”

COVID-19 vaccine data will provide transparency: NIH director

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, feels that drug companies releasing the COVID-19 data will help more than hurt the American people.

“It’s really healthy to open up a discussion, an honest scientific discussion, uncensored, on the evidence on the COVID-19 vaccine,” he said.

Bhattacharya said the mandates put in place years ago brought about a level of distrust among the public.

“For me, the most important thing is we need to have public health be honest with the American public. That’s, to me, that’s the upshot of the president’s take, which I really just admire.”