President Trump’s former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, has expressed concern over Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in mRNA vaccine funding, which could leave the United States unprepared for future public health emergencies. Adams believes that mRNA technology has uses beyond vaccines and has saved millions of lives. The first COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna hit the market in 2021, thanks to a massive influx of funding from the first Trump administration, Operation Warp Speed. Experts say mRNA technology has the potential to revolutionize treatments for evolving pathogens, especially bird flu, because the platform can be easily modified.
Kennedy canceled $500 million worth of contracts related to mRNA vaccine research funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Instead, he said the agency will focus on platforms with “stronger safety records.” Public health experts point out that reviews of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of doses of mRNA shots administered worldwide have found very few adverse events.
Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, told The Hill that the cancellation is a threat to national security, as it opens the U.S. to future public health emergencies caused by biological warfare. In the long run, winding down research efforts on mRNA vaccine platforms will stifle medical innovation coming out of the U.S., including new treatments for diseases like cancer.
