Stocks of COVID vaccine makers dropped after the Washington Post reported that Trump administration health officials plan to publicly link the vaccines and child deaths.

Shares of companies that make COVID-19 vaccines sank Friday, after a report raised fears that Trump administration health officials will blame the vaccines for some child deaths.

The Washington Post report may come as a surprise to investors, as President Donald Trump has expressed pride in Operation Warp Speed, which his first administration launched in 2020 to hasten the development of the vaccines.

The report, which cites four people described as familiar with the situation, said the government's findings appear to be based on unverified submissions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The CDC itself says a report to VAERS "does not mean the vaccine caused the event."

Still, shares of Moderna Inc., which makes the Spikevax COVID vaccine, dropped 7% - putting them on track for their lowest close since March 13, 2020, the month in which the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Pfizer Inc.'s stockslid 4% and BioNTech SE shares sank 7.3%, as those companies partner to make the Comirnaty COVID vaccine.

Moderna responded to a MarketWatch request for comment by saying Spikevax is "rigorously" monitored by not only the U.S. Food and Drug Administration but also health regulators in more than 90 countries.

"With more than 1 billion doses distributed globally, these systems - in the U.S., Australia, Canada and across European national health systems - have not identified any new or undisclosed safety concerns in children or in pregnant women," Moderna's statement said.

Pfizer and BioNTech did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Citi analyst Geoff Meacham said he will hold judgment until the Trump officials make their case, as the report says, to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which meets Sept. 18 and Sept. 19. He also echoed Moderna's comments, by saying the vaccines are "robustly" studied.

"All this goes to say we continue to have tempered sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccine-centric names given persistent headline volatility," Meacham wrote.

Keep in mind, the report comes a week after the Wall Street Journal reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would release a report linking the use during pregnancy of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Kenvue Inc.'s (KVUE) over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol, to autism in children.

Meanwhile, RFK Jr.'s has faced criticism from both sides of the political aisle for his views, as the report also follows the grilling Kennedy faced last week by the Senate Finance Committee about his overhaul of the U.S. health system, including the firing in June of all the members of a panel that advises the CDC on vaccine policy.

And RFK Jr.'s disdain for mRNA drugs, like the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots, is well documented. In early August, the Trump administration said it would stop funding mRNA drug development, as Kennedy doesn't believe messenger RNA vaccines, are effective.