Trump presses drugmakers to release data on COVID vaccines

President Donald Trump on Monday urged pharmaceutical companies to share their internal records for COVID-19 vaccines and medications with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the general public. Pfizer and other companies had shown him great numbers and results, but they needed to make their findings publicly available, he said. The question of the drugs’ safety and efficacy was ripping the CDC apart, he said. WORLD has reached out to Pfizer and Moderna for comment. This story will be updated with any response WORLD receives.

Federal officials fired CDC director Susan Monarez last week after she refused to change vaccine policies. She’d held the position for about a month. Several other CDC officials resigned after her firing.

What vaccine changes did the federal government make? Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week said the Food and Drug Administration, which approves vaccines and other medications for use, rescinded its emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA also limited its approval of three vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax to high-risk patients only and raised the vaccines’ age requirements. Kennedy previously removed COVID-19 vaccines from the recommended immunization list for healthy children and pregnant women.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s story on who now leads the CDC after Monarez’s firing.