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    • Shares of vaccine manufacturer plummet after Trump RFK Jr. appoints as HHS leader
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    Shares of vaccine manufacturer plummet after Trump RFK Jr. appoints as HHS leader

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    Topline

    Stocks linked to vaccine developers such as Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax tumbled ahead of Thursday’s market close, plunging after reports emerged that President-elect Donald Trump had targeted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would select as head of the Ministry of Public Health and Health. Human services.

    Key facts

    Trump confirmed his selection of RFK Jr. on Thursday afternoon. and announced via Truth Social that the former independent presidential candidate would be nominated as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Novavax and BioNTech closed more than 7% lower, with almost all of the losses coming after news of the selection emerged: Novavax shares fell to $7.22 while BioNTech shares fell to $103.56.

    Moderna stock closed 5.6% lower at $39.77, putting the stock at its lowest point of the year.

    Sanofi shares fell 3.4% to $47.82, continuing a weeks-long decline in the stock price after its latest earnings report last month.

    Pfizer suffered small losses compared to its peers on Thursday, closing 2.6% lower at $26.02, although it also had the sharpest decline of the day immediately after the RFK Jr. news.

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    Tangent

    Shares of Pfizer, Sanofi, BioNTech and Moderna have fallen since the start of the year. However, Moderna’s shares have fallen much further than their peers, falling more than 60% since January, when it traded at $112.50 per share. The biotech company’s shares peaked at $166 this summer and began trading below $40 on Thursday.

    Important background

    RFK Jr. has built a reputation as a vaccine skeptic but has failed to adopt the “anti-vaxx” label attributed to him by critics. The former environmental lawyer has said his children have been vaccinated and that he is not against safe vaccines. RFK Jr., who repeatedly promoted the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, has also falsely claimed that COVID-19 targets “white people and black people” and that Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese are the most immune to the disease. He said last month, as he ran for president, that he would “not take anyone’s vaccines away from anyone,” noting that he wants Americans to “know the safety profile, the risk profile and the efficacy of each vaccine .” Kennedy has also pledged to remove fluoride from public water and “remove toxins from our food.”

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