Trump's deeply unqualified health officials plan a presentation next week linking COVID-19 vaccines to child deaths (based on unverified reports, naturally) to a panel that shapes vaccine recommendations, several insiders revealed yesterday, and, as one former health official said, in an attempt to “scare people.” Via the Washington Post:

According to four “people familiar with the situation” who spoke with the Washington Post in a report published Friday, the aforementioned presentation will include information from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a government database that collects user-submitted reports on potential side effects of vaccines, with submissions having no verification or vetting process to validate claims.

That presentation is set to be given to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an influential panel of advisors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is scheduled to discuss – and possibly recommend – new guidance on COVID-19 vaccines during its upcoming meetings on Sept. 18 and 19.

That unverified claims of alleged vaccine side effects would play any role in the CDC’s vaccine guidance, or be presented at all to the panel of advisors, was merely a “scare” tactic to sow further distrust of vaccines, argued Noel Brewer, a former CDC adviser who was terminated by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy, who himself has long been a vaccine skeptic.

“They are leveraging this platform to share untruths about vaccines to scare people,” Brewer said, speaking with the Washington Post. “The U.S. government is now in the business of vaccine misinformation.”