It was a blow many were braced for, yet the block on US funding for mRNA vaccines by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s health department has left scientists reeling, with some stating the move could make the world less safe.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it will cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines, ending 22 federal contracts – including one with the pharmaceutical company Moderna for its bird flu vaccine for humans.
“We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
In many ways, it is not a surprise: Kennedy has long been known to be a vaccine sceptic, despite saying he is “not anti-vaccine”, just “pro-safety”, and has himself spread misinformation around immunisation, including falsely calling mRNA Covid jabs the “deadliest vaccine ever made”.
In the statement, Kennedy said HSS had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts and acted,” and went on to claim mRNA vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections such as Covid and flu.
Yet scientists have been quick to refute the claims, emphasising that mRNA jabs saved millions of lives during the pandemic and, contrary to Kennedy’s assertions, do not increase the mutation rate of viruses.
“There is no scientific evidence that this is the case,” said Robin Shattock, professor of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London. “Different viruses mutate at different rates, for example influenza virus changes on a seasonal basis, Sars-CoV2 continues to vary irrespective of whether individuals have received mRNA vaccines.”
Kennedy has spent decades undermining vaccine science, including championing the debunked claim that “autism comes from vaccines”, yet his invective towards mRNA jabs has been particularly potent.
“It is difficult to understand why these brilliant innovations should be the target of anti-science sentiment. But such a sentiment is not logical and so difficult to explain with logic,” said Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group that led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
What is clear is that since mRNA vaccines came to public attention during Covid, they have been mired in misinformation.
Such vaccines contain messenger RNA (mRNA) – a single stranded molecule that carries genetic instructions which can be used by…
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