For Most of Us, No Covid Vaccines This Fall

We sorta saw it coming…

Anti-vaxxers like Marty Makaray and Vinay Prasad have taken over the FDA, and now they’re operating with RFK Jr.’s blessing and breaking his promise to leave vaccines alone (we figured he would). As STAT News and other news outlets are reporting, the FDA has officially decided to “limit access to Covid-19 vaccines going forward to people 65 and older and others who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill…” They’re also imposing new, unnecessary burdens on the vaccine approval process, which could mean new clinical trials for every updated vaccine. Most of these stories are leaving out crucial information about why it matters.

Vaccines protect us from Long Covid.

Several studies, including one in the New England Journal of Medicine, have shown that vaccines and boosters significantly reduce your risk of Covid’s longterm impacts. Another 2024 study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine also confirmed that vaccines reduce the risk of post-Covid complications, including heart failure. A meta-analysis in the Journal of Infection looked at 25 different studies, totalling 14 million people, and found a 24 percent drop in risk after two doses. A study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that three doses of vaccine reduce someone’s Long Covid risk by more than 60 percent. It stands to reason that getting updated vaccines plays an important role in preventing Long Covid.

That’s something mainstream news outlets and popular newsletters aren’t talking about nearly enough. Every week, scientific research adds to the mountain of studies that Covid causes long-term harm, even in mild or asymptomatic cases. It’s driving waves of brain damage, heart disease, accelerated aging, immune system dysfunction, and even cancer. This would be a crucial reason why everyone needs access to updated and next-generation vaccines. By withholding them, anti-science quacks like Makary and Prasad are condemning millions of adults and children to chronic illness and premature death. They have blood on their hands.

There’s a small chance that the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee will defy the FDA and approve boosters, but anything like that would require a massive public backlash. So now would be a good time for that…

The current wave of news coverage insinuates that this only matters for the vulnerable. It matters to everyone, because we’re all still vulnerable to Covid. Every infection does damage. Frankly, it’s textbook eugenicist behavior to cover the FDA’s moves here while framing them as primarily an issue for one part of the population. The public should show massive outrage.

Unless they’re informed, they won’t.

There’s a lot more going on…

The absence of vaccines this fall puts even more pressure on other mitigations like masking and testing, not just for Covid, but also the flu. Pfizer has stopped manufacturing Lucira, a combination test with good accuracy but a large number of complaints. Fortunately, other combination tests like Healgen have hit the market, with a touted accuracy rate above 90 percent. Aptitude has also launched a Covid/flu test. It’s only available to healthcare providers now, but you can sign up for a waitlist here, and they’ll tell you when you can get it. CorDX offers a home test with good reviews and a high accuracy rate.

RFK Jr. has continued to gag public health agencies over crises like H5N1 bird flu. Insiders at CDC have said he has “banned further testing of symptomatic farm workers after several tested positive for H5N1.” In fact, he’s threatening to fire anyone who dares to talk with the media and “blacklist” them from ever working for another agency under his watch.

A piece in NPR confirms that public communication under RFK Jr. remains largely closed off, with newsletters and health alerts suspended since March despite outbreaks of measles, salmonella, listeria, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and (yes) growing cases of H5N1 bird flu. This administration knows what it’s doing, hiding diseases to keep the public in the dark, so they have no idea what threats are spreading and won’t think about what their employers or their government owes them when it comes to clean air, vaccines, and treatments.

For them, our ignorance is their bliss.

What else?