Public health experts dismayed by RFK Jr.’s defunding of mRNA vaccine research : Shots

A researcher works at Moderna headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In May, the Trump administration pulled more than $ 700 million hired in Moderna to develop future influenza vaccines, and this week, it canceled additional $ 500 million in subsidies at various institutions seeking RNA vaccines.

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Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg / Getty Images

The Trump administration cancels nearly $ 500 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines to protect the United States from future viral threats. This decision has delighted criticism of technology, but has horrified many experts in public health and biosecurity.

The Federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda), which supervises the country’s defenses against organic attacks, ends 22 contracts with university researchers and private companies to develop new uses for the secretary of mRNA technology, health and social services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

MRNA technology was used by the first Trump administration to create the most commonly used COVI-19 vaccines, which are widely considered as a medical triumph that has saved millions of lives safely and effectively. But vaccine mandates during the pandemic sowed fierce antipathy towards technology, leading to generalized public opposition.

“Let me be absolutely clear: HHS takes care of safe and effective vaccines for each American who wants them,” Kennedy said in a video explaining the decision. “This is why we go beyond the limits of mRNA vaccines for respiratory viruses and investing in better solutions.”

The announcement has dismayed many of those who study infectious diseases.

“It is perhaps the most dangerous public health judgment I saw during my 50 years in this company,” said Michael Osterholm, who heads the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It is baseless, and we will pay a huge price in terms of diseases and death. I am extremely worried about it.”

But the decision was greeted by vaccine criticisms such as the defense of the health of the group’s children, which Kennedy himself founded.

“Although we believe that mRNA vaccines should be withdrawn from the market, the announcement is a positive development towards the protection of public health,” said Mary Holland, president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Jennifer Nuzzo does not agree. She heads the Pandemic Center for the Brown University School of Public Health and says that this decision could erode the preparation for future pandemics.

“This is a deeply disappointing development,” she said. “When there is the next pandemic, we are going to be flat. It absolutely leaves the country vulnerable.”

Nuzzo and others are not just worried about the next pandemic. Many experts say that mRNA vaccines would provide crucial deterrence and powerful defense against bioterroicists.

“I think it endangers the national security of the United States,” said Chris Meekins, a senior biodefense officials in the first Trump administration. “This could put the United States to a strategic disadvantage of national security and would be a significant threat to the national security of the United States.”

By announcing his decision, Kennedy said that COVVI-19 vaccines were dangerous and ineffective, helped to stimulate the evolution of the virus and could not follow new changes.

“After examining the best experts in science and advice to NIH and FDA, HHS determined that mRNA technology has more risks than the advantages of these respiratory viruses,” Kennedy said.

Many external experts say that Kennedy’s claims are wrong.

“His science is back, as is often the case,” explains Dr. Peter Hooz, who is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine of the Baylor College of Medicine and who directs Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. “This is a proven technology for emerging respiratory viruses or respiratory virus pandemics. It is extremely safe and has been incredibly effective.”

Arnm vaccines work by stimulating the immune system with a key protein from a virus. Kennedy says that the federal government is investing in an alternative technology that uses whole killed viruses and can produce “natural immunity”.

Although this technology has produced effective vaccines, it is a much older approach that can have security problems and is not as agile to respond to new threats, according to experts.

“It is irresponsible to remove the financing of future technologies with great potential and move it to obsolete old -fashioned technologies,” said Rick Bright, who directed Barda during the first Trump administration. “We bring back our country from 2025 to 1940, and we all know that it is a recipe for disaster and failure.”

MRNA technology is the only vaccination technology that can be developed quickly enough to respond quickly to a new pathogenic threat, according to experts.

“In an epidemic, when you are faced with a rapid spread virus – whether nature or an opponent of the nation state – speed is the name of the game,” said Bright.

The administration had previously canceled a $ 766 million contract with the Modern Vaccine Company to develop a vaccine against mRNA to protect people from influenza strains with pandemic potential.

Many movements of fear like this will continue to undermine public confidence in vaccines in general and mRNA technology in particular, which is also promising for the treatment of diseases, including cancer.

“The deleterious impact is not only in the contracts they cancel, but they try to assert the public that mRNA technology is not working very well and that it is not sure,” explains Hooz. “And this is absolutely false.”