mm-news-@dmin Trump highlights a growing divide over the effectiveness of COVID-19 drugs, pressing pharmaceutical companies and health officials to prove whether the treatments truly saved lives.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday called on pharmaceutical companies. To justify the success of their drugs intended to treat Covid-19.
He said there is disagreement on whether the drugs saved lives.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “With CDC being ripped apart over this question. I want the answer, and I want it NOW. Pfizer and others showed me extraordinary information, but they never release those results to the public.”
In his post, Trump urged drug companies to be more transparent about their results to “clear up this MESS.”
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the latest round of Covid vaccines. But only for people at higher risk of severe illness. Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax with Sanofi make the three approved shots.
The president’s comments also come days. After he fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez after she refused to resign. Four other top health officials at the CDC also announced they were quitting the agency last week. Including Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The leadership upheaval at the CDC follows a series of measures by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to overhaul federal health agencies and change US immunisation policies. He has instituted mass firings, gutted a key government vaccine panel and canceled studies on mRNA shot technology.
In an email to agency staff on Thursday, Kennedy pledged to continue what he has described as a mission to restore trust to the agency, touting “significant progress” already.
Public health experts, physicians, researchers, and current and former CDC employees warn that Kennedy’s approach, along with cuts to spending and staff, has already hobbled the agency, and they caution that matters will worsen if he continues.
So far, Kenedy has faced relatively little resistance from the White House, and the president appears to have gone along with the push to oust Monarez. The White House announced last week that Trump fired her, although Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services initially made the announcement.
In his Monday post, Trump appears torn between Kennedy and his detractors. The president doesn’t appear to embrace Kennedy’s view that Covid vaccines were decidedly harmful.
Trump has previously touted the success of Operation Warp Speed, the government-backed effort to develop Covid countermeasures, including vaccines.
“I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???” he wrote of the initiative.
