The second Trump administration increasingly resembles the Biden administration on two issues that played a major role in President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, raising the question of how many foot soldiers Republicans can turn out in November midterms.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blew past its sibling Food and Drug Administration’s targeted approvals of updated COVID-19 vaccines for elderly and high-risk Americans, quietly issuing recommendations last week that all healthy adults and children starting at 6 months old take the non-sterilizing mRNA products off-label.
The expansion is even more surprising because the FDA approved Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines without direct human evidence for the efficacy of the new formulations compared to a placebo, putting tens of millions of Americans who still get COVID vaccines for themselves or their children at risk of becoming guinea pigs.
The CDC cryptically cited “legal uncertainties and inquiries” for its one-size-fits-all jab recommendations, which simply reinstate its recommendations from the July 2025 immunization schedule for the upcoming “respiratory illness season.”
Heidi Overton, nominee for FDA commissioner, pointedly affirmed at her confirmation hearing last week that the agency has deemed “all” approved vaccines on the market “safe and effective,” giving the CDC cover for its off-label push.
Neither the CDC nor Department of Health and Human Services answered Just the News queries to explain the recommendations in light of the FDA’s targeted approvals.
Hours before Overton’s hearing Thursday, Students for Life of America sent the FDA a “notice of intent to sue,” alleging failure to follow the Endangered Species Act when it approved an abortion pill in 2000 because it didn’t consult with relevant agencies about mifepristone’s threat to wildlife when it arrives in waterways via wastewater.
SFLA made the same legal argument when the Supreme Court reviewed mifepristone’s approval, while several GOP state attorneys general asked the Environmental Protection Agency to add the abortion pill to its next “contaminant candidate list,” with both citing the surge in mifepristone’s at-home use since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights.
The FDA’s refusal to reinstate in-person prescribing requirements for mifepristone that were removed by the Biden administration, and the Trump administration’s argument that states don’t have legal standing to challenge FDA changes to mifepristone’s conditions, had already created a rift with one of the GOP’s most loyal voter bases ahead of midterms.
