Since 2021, Covid vaccines and boosters have been widely available at doctor’s offices, hospitals and drug stores here in America. After my first Covid vaccine and booster shot – both of which were administered by Virginia’s mass-vaccination program – I’ve gotten boosters from local Walgreens or CVS drugstores. They double-check their database and bam, I get the shot for free and it’s all easy-peasy. As it should be. The goal is to get as many people vaccinated and up-to-date with the latest tailor-made boosters for variants. Same with the flu shot, which I’ve been getting annually for many years now. Enter Robert Kennedy Jr and his brain worm. Kennedy is an anti-vaxx lunatic and he’s now in charge of Health and Human Services, which gives him a huge amount of control over national vaccine availability and more. HHS is now changing their recommendations for Covid vaccines and boosters. Basically, if you’re not over 65 years old, you may be turned away if you try to get a vaccine or booster.
The Food and Drug Administration will permit use of Covid vaccines by adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions in the fall, but may require additional studies before approving the shots for healthy Americans younger than 65, agency officials said on Tuesday.
At this point, the additional doses offer “uncertain” benefits to many young and middle-aged people who have already been vaccinated or have had Covid, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the F.D.A.’s vaccine division chief, and Dr. Martin Makary, the agency’s commissioner, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine.
“The F.D.A. will approve vaccines for high-risk persons and, at the same time, demand robust, gold-standard data on persons at low risk,” the officials wrote.
Until now, annual Covid shots were recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older. Scientific advisers to the F.D.A. are set to meet Thursday to decide on the composition of the Covid vaccine to be made available in the fall. During the pandemic, both Dr. Prasad and Dr. Makary sharply criticized vaccine mandates and other public health measures intended to turn back the coronavirus.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, is a longtime vaccine skeptic who spent years campaigning against the Covid shots, falsely claiming at one point that the Covid vaccines had killed more people than the virus.
As a measles outbreak spreads through Texas and other states this year, Mr. Kennedy has offered only muted support for vaccinations and has repeatedly raised questions about the safety of the measles shot while suggesting, falsely, that miracle treatments, like cod liver, oil were available.
This is so mind-numbingly stupid. One of the first rules of every public-health agency in the world is “Salus populi suprema lex esto” – “The health of the people should be the supreme law.” The whole idea is to make vaccines widely available to the greatest number of people, and to increase accessibility across the board. It’s cheaper to give away free covid vaccines than have the strain on the hospital system of hundreds of thousands of middle-aged unvaccinated people with covid! This is also the idea behind free and easy access to flu shots – it’s less strain on the medical system (and less expensive overall) for fewer people to have the flu. Anyway, I guess very few of us are getting Covid boosters this fall. I doubt flu shots will be available either.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Washington, DC – United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, top right, prays with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US President Donald Trump, and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington. Elon Musk’s demand that more than two million federal employees defend their work is facing pushback from other powerful figures in the Trump administration, in a sign that the billionaire’s brash approach to overhauling the government is creating division. Pictured: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. BACKGRID USA 26 FEBRUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- United States President Donald J Trump, flanked by Jay Bhattacharya, Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), center, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, right, signs a series of executive orders related to health care in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC USA, 05 May 2025. Trump said he would soon make an announcement on health care that would be ‘more related to costs, the costs of medicine and drugs.’ Pictured: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. BACKGRID USA 5 MAY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- United States President Donald J Trump, flanked by Jay Bhattacharya, Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), center, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, right, signs a series of executive orders related to health care in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC USA, 05 May 2025. Trump said he would soon make an announcement on health care that would be ‘more related to costs, the costs of medicine and drugs.’ Pictured: Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. BACKGRID USA 5 MAY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – United States President Donald J Trump makes remarks on the India-Pakistan cease-fire, the new US-China Trade Deal, the return of Eden Alexander from Hamas captivity and the high cost of prescription drugs before signing an executive order that he promises will lower the cost of those prescription drugs almost immediately, during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 12 MAY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
When I was 30 I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I was a runner, I ate insanely healthy I had no underlying health conditions. I contracted the flu which developed into double lung pneumonia. I went to the ER because I could hear my lungs crackle. They gave me IV antibiotics for a few hours and sent me home. My mom is a nurse and came and got me and brought me to her house. 24 hours later she took me back to the ER and they admitted me for a week to the hospital. I almost died. I lost 20 pounds and it took me a month to be able to walk around the block again. I did not receive the flu shot that year. I’ve never missed it since.
Healthy people need the flu shot and
covid vaccine. They get sick.
This is madness.
Heylee: I had a very similar experience with flu when I was super fit and 46 years old. If not for modern broad-spectrum IV antibiotics and vasopressors, I (like thousands of other people that year) would have passed away. Flu is not to be messed with, and being thin, fit, or “healthy” doesn’t make anyone immune to serious experiences.
Honestly the propaganda that “healthy” people should be fine with getting covid/flu is gross, ableist propaganda. It’s not just “healthy” people from whom they’re withholding vaccines–sounds like they’re withholding them from *everyone* under 65 … we the “healthy” are supposed to be ok with others getting sick or dying preventably from infectious disease, as long as we imagine they’re disabled or fat?
The FDA has a ridiculously short public comment period about this. It ends Friday, 5/23. Here is the link to the online form:
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001
I also emailed the FDA and left them a crazed angry voice mail. How are my kids and I supposed to feel safe about visiting my elderly parents this Fall if we can’t get the booster? Yes, vaccines can only do so much, that’s why we all have to get them. I’m also contacting my reps in Congress and in the New York State legislature. I’m hoping my state can find a way to still provide shots to all who want them.
I hate these dumb emmer effers with all my heart and soul. I hope that if this happens that it happens most of all to the people who voted for it.
thanks for posting this public comment link. I left a comment and will share it out. please everyone post a comment in the link if you can.
Thanks for posting this — I left a comment burning their asses.
Thanks for posting! I left a comment this morning; it is almost inconceivable that they are even considering this! Madness
Thank you so much for posting this. I can’t stand these people.
They’re trying to kill us all. Please, everyone, raise a big stink! Also: wear a mask! 😷
This is yet another cruelty-first asinine policy from this administration. Designed to make more people suffer and possibly die, in service to anti-science loons. As part of this action, they are also adding hurdles of additional trials and testing before considering allowing the vaccines to be available to others.
Remember how the GOP used to bang on about the so-called “evils” of big government and the “nanny state”? This shows that was just an inflammatory smoke screen to rile up their base and fear. Because it’s a very nanny-state controlling move to insert government into the public’s access to healthcare, medications and their health care providers’s recommendations.
Remember the “Republicans want a government small enough to fit in your vagina” t-shirts? THIS is is a variation of that, with the most controlling intrusive policies ever.
100% this.
All my life Republicans have hated the ‘R’ word – regulation. There is none on what goes into vape juices because that’s bad for capitalism yet they’re restricting access to vaccines of all things. FFS.
They want another pandemic don’t they? This terrifies me. I have severe asthma and I need to get the flu shot and Covid vaccine every year if I could end up seriously sick. And I need as many people as possible around me to get it too. I hate this administration.
They (RFKJr and his ilk) want to kill off the oldies because seniors typically have a lot more medical issues to contend with and cost the gov’t health services more. You can be sure all the Trump boot-lickers in senior gov’t positions will have the best of medical care even though many of them are well over 65 because hypocrisy rules.
Eugenics in action! If you’re not a hearty enough specimen to fight off the virus on your own, they don’t want you around. Period. Most younger people weren’t bothering to get the shot anyway, and many didn’t get even the original one which is why we never achieved full herd immunity. Instead, we became millions of petri dishes for all these variants. I guess at 76 I’ll be able to get my booster in the autumn, but I am just tired. It’s all so unnecessary because of an ignorant, selfish population. They gave us Trump and now are giving us diseases which are easily prevented and controlled. Just tired of it.
Nailed it!
a good friend of mine works for CMS, and a few months ago I said something to her like “its almost like they want people to die” and she said yes, they do, thats the whole point. the more people who die – especially older people on medicare, younger and poor people on medicaid – the better, according to the trump administration.
its a really chilling thought.
I did get boosted in november but my youngest child didn’t bc the pharmacy didnt have the pediatric booster. i may take him this month to get it just so he has something on board. My husband’s best friend was healthy, fully vaccinated and boosted, and long COVID almost killed him.
I think your friend is right. I think this administration sees anyone who can’t work or is old or disabled or sickly as a drain on the system. They are monsters who have zero empathy.
This completely tracks.
They are deplorable.
Until 2 months ago…I shared housing with Fam where we got regularly vaxxed every 6 month to also protect me who is into YEAR 3 of dealing with 😱 Long Covid …
That HITS just keep coming from this putrid administration 😪
It usually takes longer for cults to reach the mass suicide stage.
Trump started, in his first administration. Remember, his early covid policy was to let it rip, through Democratic states.
This is insane.
Does anyone know if we can still get the current booster if we’re younger?
And hmm. I wonder if Canada will covid and flu vax Americans who visit this fall?
Canada doesn’t produce their own Covid vaccines. I think our main source is from the States so we’d better hustle on securing alternate suppliers if the next step is to “save” other countries by not exporting vaccine to them.
Yeah, and also it seems very unclear whether the FDA will authorize an updated covid vaccine at all … which means none for us here in Canada either, unless the EU or somewhere else is able to turn on a dime to identify the strain and produce the vax
Wow. And if the vaccine isn’t updated, then it might be less effective— which will then provide “support” for the “vaccines-don’t-work” camp. SMH.
Damn. My kid goes to university in Canada. Hubby and I were going to try and get both updated flu and Covid shots when we went to visit them during the fall semester. Now I also have to worry if the kid can get either one (last year they were able to just walk into Rexall with their UHIP card and get them).
also, what is this robust gold-medal quality data they are going on and on about?
This is so deranged. Is this the guideline anywhere else? For the first time ever I’m glad to have all my autoimmune problems so I can still get a COVID vaccine.
Forgive my ignorance as I am not from the US, but whenever I read these stories I am angered and wonder, “How is this allowed?!” Is an (idiot) president honestly allowed to get away with doing whatever he wants, put whoever (idiots) he wants into positions of power, without retaliation? Does he not have to answer to anyone? So you can literally have some deranged lunatic up there creating ridiculous laws and they are not held accountable? HOW?? How can this go on?!!
Short answer: it’s allowed because white people wanted this and voted for it. And it will go on until they demand it be stopped.
Yes, this. Unfortunately. And at this point, even demanding that this be stopped might not be enough to stop the trajectory of this madness.
And it’s allowed because Congress rubber stamped Trump’s terrible unqualified temperamentally unfit appointees.
CONGRESS approved Kennedy knowing he was an anti-science anti-vax conspiracy theory loon, when their JOB is to prevent this kind of thing from happening, to make decisions based on what will promote the health, safety, well being of the people they were elected to represent, and America as a whole.
Basically the many of the leaders of the US federal government are not just bad at their jobs, they are purposely NOT doing their jobs, NOT upholding their Oaths of Office from Trump on down AND systematically removing or disabling all the institutional guardrails, checks and balances that would normally call out and push back on that.
Succinct and correct.
The Evangelical voting block of the magat movement are very stupid and evil people. (Trust me. I grew up around them). They believe they don’t get into heaven until the world is destroyed and maximum chaos is caused. The rich South Africkkkmans and billionaire class of magat supporters profit more the sicker people are because they own and control the entire medical system from pharmaceutical companies to insurance companies to hospitals/clinics. There is no incentive in end stage capitalism to keep the citizens healthy when so much money can be made poisoning the population with pollution and preventable diseases, then allowing the billionaire class to charge ruthlessly high prices for medical care.
What a perverse way of thinking … do evil shit in service of, what exactly. And conveniently give yourself cover for being super selfish, greedy, not caring about the destruction and suffering you cause.
Calls to mind the World Party song “and God said”
With it’s very short, and to the point, lyrics
“And God said:
‘Look after the planet
Look after the planet.
Look after the planet.’
And God said:
‘Look after the planet.
And Man said:
‘Fuck you’ ”
These people!
We are in a state of lawlessness, and the motivations are part eugenics and part financial – watch for supply shortages and any excuse to jack up prices like during Covid. The big threat for them is some GOP congress members are moving more centrist bc they’re smarter than the others and know the populous is pissed. They always miss the fact that a large part of their base are the people with health complications or who don’t have easy access to medical care. Only 31% of us voted for this, so either they’re lying to themselves or taking a massive political risk. MAGA on principle is designed for the wealthy or upwardly mobile – those who will get tax breaks, do not need to rely on social services, and who have safe investments that insulate from market chaos. I think the farmers are catching onto this, though our media is hiding all the unrest and activism here.
Shouldn’t they want to maintain working people alive and well enough to keep paying taxes?
denied access to medical care will affect seniors and more vulnerable populations first – persons with disabilities, those on Medicaid, those who may be unable to work etc. —- they are essentially trying to cull the herd down to just the workers.
This is a page ripped out of the Nazi playbook — they want young, healthy, white workers so they take away health care from the elderly, sick, disbled and non-white immigrants.
This is how it is in the UK. No Covid boosters for anyone under 65 unless they are immunocompromised or are a carer (maybe nurses and doctors too). Last year I wanted to get a flu vaccination and was told by a pharmacist that there was a major shortage. Not even she could get one! I was outraged. I have no idea why (one can’t get a flu shot).
I was in NYC and could have got a Covid booster but it was close to $200 (as a non American). I decided not to.
Republicans and MAGAs keep claiming that they are against government being involved in people’s private lives. Yet they are the ones determined to take away peoples’ rights and options.
Right!
Remember all the screeching about “death panels” when the Obama administration was working on the ACA? What the hell is this then?
I just recovered from whooping cough cough at age 81, so make you get your Tdap vaccine and everything else ASAP!!
Trust me that whooping cough is going around and not something you want to get. Need a booster every 10 years. Teens and older people especially vulnerable and it has been spreading lately.
This includes pneumonia and shingles. Ditto for everyone in your family. This could save your life and theirs because of the way this evil administration is doing things!!
This is so gross. Millions of people safely getting the vaccine each year IS the continued testing. If one person has a significant adverse reaction it triggers review protocols. By qualified doctors. The science community must feel so deflated right now.
This FDA ruling IS NOT FINAL YET. There’s a public comment period open through May 23 2025. So if you want your COVID vaccine, let them know! https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001
Thank you for this link! Commented.
Yes, thank you for posting. I was just going to post the link as well. Everyone please comment! At the very least they will know people are paying attention and are angry.
Thank you for sharing the link again and commenting to boost it! You can remain anonymous, and I sent this—feel free to make it your own, too!
Public Comment: Access to Annual COVID-19 Vaccines
We, the citizens of the United States, strongly urge the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure broad, equitable access to updated COVID-19 vaccines each year, regardless of age, health status, or risk level.
Much like the annual influenza vaccine, updated COVID-19 vaccines are a vital public health tool to help reduce the spread of contagious disease, protect vulnerable populations, and maintain societal resilience. Ongoing viral evolution and waning immunity underscore the need for regular access to updated formulations.
We ask that the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine be made available to all individuals who wish to receive it, without restrictive eligibility criteria, delays, or barriers to access.
Thank you for considering the voices of the public in this critical decision.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Concerned Citizen of the United States
I hope Canada is going to act as quickly as possible to keep us all safe. I’m seeing a big push to buy Canadian, travel within Canada, and severing ties with America – this is great. When you friend proves unreliable, and not a friend at all, you let them go. I want this mindset to extend to science now – we cannot rely on the US they work for Russia they don’t care about their own citizens much less the rest of the world.
This is terrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying.
I despise this man with all my being. I never had Covid with the vaccines. The ONE time I went a little too long between vaccinations. And was not protected. I got Covid and ended up in the hospital. I woke up and I felt I was drowning on dry land. I could not breathe. If it was not for being at my mom’s home for the holidays. And she took me to the hospital. I may have perished that day. I can’t tell you the feeling of being on oxygen and seeing your oxygen levels drop continually on the machine next to me. I actually had come to accept I may not make it and had to make peace with it.
But thankfully, the hospital where I was at was fantastic and they got me the remdesivir intravenously and saved my life. Forever grateful.
Now this yahoo is going to get me killed and tell me to drink raw milk.
God save our souls.
They’re trying to kill us all. Please, everyone, raise a big stink! Also: wear a mask! 😷
Here’s the link to leave a comment — PLEASE COMMENT
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001
I just don’t understand why it protects people over 65 but anyone younger it wouldn’t protect. I’m 68 so I’ll probably eligible for the shots but if it protects me why doesn’t protect anyone younger. These people are idiots.
Gotta love it when the “medical treatment is my personal choice!” crowd decides that medical treatment should not, in fact, be someone’s personal choice
Exactly! If someone chooses to avoid the vaccine and risk severe illness or worse for themselves, oh well. It’s But don’t take the choice away from everyone else.
More info on “dr” Prasad. Delusional anti-science nutcase: https://newrepublic.com/article/194979/vinay-prasad-fda-trump-vaccines
And Makary apparently believes in “natural immunity,” something that does not exist. And that Covid can have herd immunity, which it won’t – like flu, that needs updated vaccines. https://time.com/7265012/marty-makary-trump-nominee-fda/
These people are fucking terrifying. Heaven help us because these nutcases won’t.