No child deaths definitively linked to Covid shots, FDA says

Health newsNo child deaths definitively linked to Covid shots, FDA saysThe agency’s analysis contradicts claims made by former vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00The FDA analysis was dated Dec. 5 but was not made public until this month.Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 22, 2026, 4:01 PM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.No child deaths have been definitively linked to Covid vaccines, according to a report from the Food and Drug Administration that was quietly made public last week. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The analysis comes nearly six months after former FDA vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad said, without releasing evidence, that the agency had identified at least 10 previously unreported child deaths tied to the vaccines.Prasad’s claims were used to help justify proposed changes to how the FDA reviews vaccines. He left the agency in April after facing criticism over delays and rejections involving several treatments for rare diseases. “To sort of imply that there was a wholesale or large number of kids killed by the vaccine, I think, goes beyond what the evidence seems to be here” in the report, said Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA chief scientist and an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University Medical Center.The FDA’s analysis surfaced in a letter Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent this month to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding transparency around Covid vaccine safety. An HHS official confirmed the report was authentic.In the analysis, dated Dec. 5, the FDA reviewed 96 reports of child deaths submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System through Aug. 14, 2025. VAERS is a vaccine safety system in which anyone — including doctors, patients and caregivers — can report health problems that happen after vaccination. The reports alone don’t mean a vaccine caused the proble...