The Department of Health and Human Services announced that its head, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has terminated emergency-use authorizations for COVID-19-related drugs and products. The terminations will take effect following a notice period, while the declarations for drugs and biological products will terminate 12 months after the determination. Declarations for medical devices will terminate 180 days after Kennedy’s determination.
“Americans deserve a regulatory system that is transparent, accountable, and rooted in the rule of law,” Kennedy said. “By ending these COVID-19 emergency use authorization declarations, we’re reinforcing public confidence that emergency authorities are temporary and targeted.”
The emergency declarations were first issued in 2020 to support access to medical products during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Kennedy announced that the FDA revoked the emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“In a series of FDA actions today we accomplished all four goals,” he declared at the time. “The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded.”
“FDA has now issued marketing authorization for those at higher risk: Moderna (6+ months), Pfizer (5+), and Novavax (12+). These vaccines are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors,” he continued. “The American people demanded science, safety, and common sense. This framework delivers all three.”
The 2020 notice authorizing drugs and biological products declared that there was a “public health emergency that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens living abroad and that involves a novel (new) coronavirus (nCoV) first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China in 2019 (2019-nCoV).”
