On Friday Eastern Time, vaccine manufacturers' stocks fell sharply for the second consecutive day. Wall Street analysts warn that Trump's selection of vaccine skeptic Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health will bring huge uncertainty to the entire biotechnology industry.
Specifically, Moderna's stock price fell by over 7% during trading, Novavax's stock price fell by 2.5%, Pfizer's stock price fell by over 5%, and German pharmaceutical company BioNTech also experienced a decline of over 5%.
Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Papadakis has downgraded the ratings of some vaccine stocks. RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams pointed out that the appointment of Kennedy Jr. may have profound and unpredictable impacts on the biotechnology industry.
The day before, US President elect Trump announced that he would nominate environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This well-known critic of American public policy will take control of the country's vast health administration as a result.
Kennedy Jr. promised a comprehensive reform of food and drug regulation, as well as government funded scientific research. He recently stated that the nutrition department of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to be revoked and warned employees of the agency to "pack up and leave".
The whole world is trying to figure out what measures Kennedy Jr. will take to restrict vaccines. If his nomination is passed in the Senate, he will have a huge impact on the leadership and employee choices of institutions responsible for developing, approving, recommending, distributing, and stockpiling vaccines.
It is reported that the budget of the US Department of Health and Human Services accounts for about a quarter of the federal budget, so this position has important control and influence over US public health policies and resource allocation.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, pointed out that choosing Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health may further weaken public trust in vaccines.
At present, doubts about vaccines have led to frequent outbreaks of measles and pertussis in the United States. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, the measles vaccination rate in kindergartens will drop to 92.7% in the 2023-24 academic year. As of November 7th, in 2024 alone, the United States has reported 266 cases of measles.
Analysts pointed out that John F. Kennedy himself had a strong anti vaccine tendency. He once questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccine. He thought COVID-19 vaccine was "the most lethal vaccine ever".
Osterholm stated that as long as Kennedy Jr. expresses doubts about vaccines, it will create a significant social problem, and the vaccination rate in the United States will further decline. Vaccine scientists are concerned that Kennedy Jr. may allow those who criticize vaccines like him to join the committee overseeing immunization recommendations.
In recent interviews, Kennedy Jr. stated that he is not against vaccines himself, but rather hopes to increase transparency and allow parents to agree to vaccination with informed consent.
CDC official Richard Besser said that if the federal government recommends that states allow parents to choose for themselves, there will be an outbreak of the pandemic, and children will be infected with measles or pertussis from school.