Trump administration quietly closed a vaccine safety office before virus hit

Experts say they do not know who is now in charge of vaccine safety

Donald Trump’s White House quietly closed the office responsible for monitoring vaccine safety before the coronavirus pandemic hit (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s White House quietly closed the office responsible for monitoring vaccine safety before the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to a report.

The office would have been responsible for checking the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines that are due to be rolled out by developers over the coming months, according to The New York Times.

The National Vaccine Program Office was run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bring together all agencies involved in immunisation efforts and to monitor the safety of vaccines once in use.

But the office was shut down in 2019 and merged into an office focussing on infectious diseases, the Times reports.

Under the CDC, the experts worked out which symptoms occurred after a vaccine was distributed and which symptoms were coincidental.

“We’re behind the eight ball,” said Daniel Salmon, who was the director of vaccine safety in that office from 2007 to 2012.

”We don’t even know who’s in charge.”

In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said that the vaccine office was not closed but had merged with the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy.

“All the functions continue in this new organisational structure,” an HHS spokesman told the Times.

Dr Nicole Lurie was assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

“The coordinated leadership for stuff like this would likely come from the National Vaccine Program Office,” she said adding that she was concerned about the lack of leadership in the field.

“There's no sort of active coordination to bring all the information together,” added Dr Lurie.