Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the emergency conditions used to justify COVID-19 declarations no longer exist, setting termination dates for liability protections and emergency authorizations.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is moving to end emergency declarations that have provided liability protections for COVID-19 vaccine, treatment and medical device manufacturers, saying the circumstances that justified those measures are no longer present.
Kennedy announced the decision after determining that the emergency basis for the declarations, first issued in early 2020, no longer applies. Those declarations gave broad liability protections to companies that made COVID-19 products and to individuals who administered them, while also allowing regulators to authorize products under emergency use standards.
The emergency framework allowed the Food and Drug Administration to issue emergency use authorizations, which require less evidence than full regulatory approval.
The declarations had been extended several times. The most recent extension came in 2024, when then-Health Secretary Xavier Becerra kept the protections in place through the end of 2029.
Becerra said at the time that although the COVID-19 public health emergency had ended in May 2023, COVID-19 “continues to present a credible risk of a future public health emergency.” He argued that maintaining the protections was necessary to preserve national preparedness.
Kennedy reached a different conclusion. In a notice of termination, he wrote that “circumstances no longer exist to justify emergency use of drugs and biological products during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Kennedy cited the fact that regulators in 2025 revoked emergency authorization for COVID-19 vaccines and transitioned the shots to the standard approval process across all available age groups.
“Americans deserve a regulatory system that is transparent, accountable, and rooted in the rule of law,” Kennedy said in a statement. “By ending these COVID-19 emergency use authorization declarations, we’re reinforcing public confidence that emergency authorities are temporary and targeted.”
To end emergency declarations, a health secretary must provide advance notice giving companies a reasonable period of time to withdraw products created under those declarations.
Health officials said the FDA determined that 12 months is sufficient for vaccines and drugs. As a result, the declarations for those products will terminate June 29, 2027.
The declarations covering medical devices, including COVID-19 tests, will remain in effect for 180 days and terminate Dec. 26, 2026.
The notice said the FDA has been working with manufacturers of products that remain under emergency authorization on seeking approval for continued use. It also said it is reasonable to conclude that manufacturers will be able to generate data supporting new filings with regulators.
The Department of Health and Human Services said officials plan to notify Congress of the decision.
Kennedy’s move marks a major shift away from the emergency legal framework that governed COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests for years, replacing broad pandemic-era protections with a return to ordinary regulatory standards.