HHS ends Covid emergency authorisations—but what actually changes?

Most Covid vaccines and treatments will continue unchanged—so will the legal protections that shield manufacturers from most lawsuits.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced it will end the emergency declarations that allowed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track Covid-19 products under Emergency Use Authorisations (EUAs).

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the extraordinary circumstances that justified those emergency powers “no longer exist.”

On the surface, it sounds like a major shift, but for most people, very little will actually change.