Since Vinay Prasad is the new director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, let’s take a look back at what he has said about vaccines.
Why?
“CBER’s mission is to protect and enhance the public health through the regulation of biological and related products including blood, vaccines, allergenics, tissues, and cellular and gene therapies.”
About CBER
The Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research or CBER regulates biological products for human use under applicable federal laws within the FDA.
This, of course, includes vaccines.
Vinay Prasad at CBER
But doesn’t the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regulate vaccines?
No.
ACIP develops recommendations for how we use vaccines that are approved by the FDA.
“CBER’s review of new biological products, and for new indications for already approved products, requires evaluating scientific and clinical data submitted by manufacturers to determine whether the product meets CBER’s standards for approval. After a thorough assessment of the data, CBER makes a decision based on the risk-benefit for the intended population and the product’s intended use.”
About CBER
Vaccines have to go through CBER before making it to the ACIP.
That makes Vinay Prasad’s role at CBER pretty important if you want to get a new vaccine approved, something that seems less and less likely under Secretary RFK Jr.
What Has Vinay Prasad Said About Vaccines?
And that makes it critical to understand what Vinay Prasad has said about vaccines in the past.
In addition to being against COVID vaccines for kids, he seems to think that kids in the United States get many more vaccines than kids in most other countries.
Countries that give most of the same vaccines on their schedule as we do in the United States.
Prasad also doesn’t understand how serious the measles outbreaks are getting, even as we reach record setting numbers of cases.
And he thinks it would be a good idea to allow vaccine manufacturers to have more liability, getting rid of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.
Prasad also either doesn’t understand or care that most of the lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers before passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act were frivolous.
Prasad thinks the current vaccine approval system is corrupt.
And Prasad really doesn’t seem to understand vaccine hesitancy at all, which will ultimately lead to his downfall, as he seems to think his ideas will lead to both better vaccines and less vaccine hesitancy.
Unfortunately, we will likely get neither.
Which I guess makes him a perfect fit for Secretary RFK Jr’s HHS!
More on Who is Vinay Prasad?
Last Updated on May 8, 2025
