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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses including COVID-19 and the flu.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.
Kennedy’s decision to terminate the projects is the latest in a string of decisions that have put the longtime vaccine critic’s doubts about shots into full effect at the nation’s health department. Kennedy has pulled back recommendations involving the COVID-19 shots, fired the panel that makes vaccine recommendations, and refused to offer a vigorous endorsement of vaccinations as a measles outbreak worsened.
The health secretary criticized mRNA vaccines in a video on his social media accounts, explaining the decision to cancel projects being led by the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, that offer protection against viruses such as the flu, COVID-19 and H5N1.
“To replace the troubled mRNA programs, we’re prioritizing the development of safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in the video.
Infectious disease experts say the mRNA technology used in vaccines is safe, and they credit its development during the first Trump administration with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Future pandemics, they warned, will be harder to stop without the help of mRNA.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations.
He noted mRNA technology offers potential advantages of rapid production, crucial in the event of a new pandemic that requires a new vaccine.
The shelving of the mRNA projects is short-sighted as concerns about a bird flu pandemic continue to loom, said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“It’s certainly saved millions of lives,” Offit said of the existing mRNA vaccines.
Scientists are using mRNA for more than infectious disease vaccines, with researchers around the world exploring its use for cancer immunotherapies. At the White House earlier this year, billionaire tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison praised mRNA for its potential to treat cancer.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. is among those actively involved in mRNA research and development involving cancer, liver disease and genetic hearing loss.
Traditionally, vaccines have required growing pieces of viruses, often in chicken eggs or giant vats of cells, then purifying that material. The mRNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. Scientists pick the protein to target, inject that blueprint and the body makes just enough to trigger immune protection—producing its own vaccine dose.
In a statement Tuesday, HHS said “other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.”
The mRNA technology is used in approved COVID-19 and RSV shots, but has not yet been approved for a flu shot. Moderna, which was studying a combination COVID-19 and flu mRNA shot, had said it believed mRNA could speed up production of flu shots compared with traditional vaccines.
The abandoned mRNA projects signal a “shift in vaccine development priorities,” the health department said in its statement, adding that it will start “investing in better solutions.”
“Let me be absolutely clear, HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Kennedy said in the statement.
Speaking hours later Tuesday at a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, alongside the state’s two Republican U.S. senators, Kennedy said work is underway on an alternative.
He said a “universal vaccine” that mimics “natural immunity” is the administration’s focus.
“It could be effective—we believe it’s going to be effective—against not only coronaviruses, but also flu,” he said.
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A nut job appointed by a nut job.
Idiocracy with “advise and consent” by bobbleheads
Trump’s biggest accomplishment during his first term was Operation Warp Speed.
So we’re going back to how we did vaccines 60 years ago, with all the downsides like high fevers and seizures, because we’ve got cranks with no evidence claiming that newer technologies are bad… while a government official holds the patent on what was chosen … which was a rush job with very little scientific scrutiny.
Sounds about right for this administration.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/hhs-redirects-500m-to-trump-appointees-vaccine-project-bypassing-reviews/ar-AA1E0peq
But did you forget that three year before that, Trump gutted the Obama created Pandemic Readiness group and pitched all of the plans into the dumpster. He called it all “a waste of money”.
Operation warp speed was the pound of cure that once of prevention could have mitigated.
It’s almost like they hate Americans.
They do. The elites of the Republican Party despise anyone they view as beneath them (which is the vast majority of people).
“Keep them poor, sick, and stupid.” – The Republican Party
There is a good reason RFK Jr. is the BLACK SHEEP of the Kennedy family . He makes irrationality seem normal in his world .
Republican are allergic to the scientific method and evidence. Meanwhile, Democrats are obsessed with pronouns. We’re screwed.
Yes, but if you screw up a pronoun, one person might be offended. If you screw up scientific research, millions might be harmed.
It’s cool. mRNA is only the technology that will likely end up curing some of our most deadly/vicious illnesses, including cancer.
Let’s let other countries develop the technology, can’t have any of those newfangled ideas poisoning American exceptionalism.
Isn’t Lilly building mRNA research and production facility in Boone County ? Did TRUMP’s RFK Jr. MAGA MAGOT just kill that ?
Multi-national pharmacy companies will move to other countries to make mRNA vaccines . Then TRUMP’s MAGA MAGOT GRIFT machine will put a high tariff tax on importing it paid by U.S. importers which will get passed on to patients in America .
RFK, Jr proves he is a blithering idiot everytime he opens his mouth. The man who swore during his appointment hearings he would not gut the vaccine programs is doing just that – and not a peep from the idiots who bought his BS hook line and sinker. The measles continue to spread, child vaccination rates continue to drop but noting from our fearless leader of the organization which is suppose to protect us. Remember; eat your greens, swim in polluted streams and take your codliver oil and all will be just fine. No wonder he was the Kennedy the democrats did not want – total sham!
More government by incompetent amateurs.