Not only is the FDA blocking access to vaccines, it is not being transparent about its process for approval. In August, 108 members of Congress wrote to the FDA demanding that it reveal its timetable. The FDA refused to offer specifics. “We understand that it is essential that the public have full trust in the F.D.A.’s review process, complete confidence in whatever products we approve or authorize, and faith in F.D.A. and our commitment to protecting public health,” the agency said.

There’s the rub. For the FDA, it’s all about “the review process,” which may well take until winter to conclude, merely to approve a drug that will be not one bit safer than it is today. In the interim, more than 100,000 kids who could have been protected are likely to be hospitalized, and thousands may be dead.

The FDA would rather see this happen than risk taking the blame for a few cases of side effects. After all, if the disease kills thousands, that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of the disease. This callous, irresponsible behavior is nothing new for the FDA. In the 1980s, they caused the needless deaths of tens of thousands of American gays by blocking use of AIDS treatments that had been shown effective in Europe for years, even going so far as to prosecute anyone smuggling such life-saving medicines into the USA.