The HHS secretary recently canceled $500 million worth of BARDA contracts around mRNA vaccine research. But the U.S. government has already spent billions on this work, which has saved millions of lives.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been on a mission to squash mRNA technology, most recently culminating in the cancellation of 22 projects and $500 million worth of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) contracts around mRNA vaccine research. That’s an aboutface for the U.S. government, which spent $31 billion funding such research between 1985 and 2022, according to one study, and at least another $971 million since 2023.
Indeed, the federal government’s investments advanced every aspect of mRNA therapeutic technology, from synthesizing RNA to delivery methods to modifying RNA to make the vaccines more immunogenic. Funding from the first Trump administration supported the development of Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines for COVID-19—which marked the technology’s market debut. Recent National Institutes of Health investments include $1 million for better engineering of RNA sequences to produce fewer ineffective antibodies and more effective ones, and $300,000 for “gene guns” that deliver vaccines in a puff of air, eliminating needles altogether.
These are not controversial research projects with unclear or unnecessary endgames—they have obvious and worthy goals. Already, mRNA vaccines have saved millions of lives. Though estimates vary, the low end of the range sits at around 2.5 million, with the upper end climbing as high as 14 million lives saved by 2023, just three years into the global pandemic.
Given the gargantuan investment already made and the stark impact that work has had, the secretary’s recent move to cancel all outstanding mRNA contracts handicaps a promising area of research—one that extends beyond infectious disease and into oncology. The move also sends a message that mRNA technology is unimportant and unsafe, a narrative that Kennedy has long promoted and one that has little support.
A study published by the Centers for Disease Control during the Biden administration analyzing Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer’s mRNA-based COVID vaccines showed that the majority of adverse events were mild and short lived, mostly consisting of injection site reactions and fatigue. The immunizations do carry an increased risk of myocarditis, a serious condition involving inflammation of the heart muscle, but the incidence rate after receiving an mRNA vaccine is estimated to be 1.7–2 cases per 100,000 people vaccinated. Before the pandemic, and before mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19, the rate of myocarditis was somewhere between 1 and 10 cases per 100,000.
Kennedy also claimed during the announcement of the BARDA contract cuts that mRNA vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu” but provided no evidence to back this up. Now, several prominent scientific leaders are speaking out to the contrary.
“This may be the most dangerous public health judgment that I’ve seen in my 50 years in this business,” Michael Osterholm, epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, told NPR.
Even figures theoretically aligned with Kennedy such as Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during the first Trump presidency, denounced the move. He said in a post on X that “quite frankly this move is going to cost lives. mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines . . . and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions.”
The cancellation of the BARDA contracts is just the latest move in Kennedy’s attack on mRNA technology. Also noteworthy is the secretary’s revamping of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The new advisors, who have long histories of scare tactics and fearmongering about immunizations in general, met in June and spent a good bit of time discussing potential safety concerns of the technology, despite not actually voting on any mRNA-based vaccine recommendations.
Following the meeting, Truist Securities analysts surmised that the new ACIP members have “a bone to pick with mRNA vaccines.” The group predicted, “Going forward, we expect ACIP to continue picking on safety issues as a backchannel to anti-vax agendas.”
Beyond mRNA technology, Kennedy has made moves on the broader vaccine front that threaten the sector. The vaccine manufacturer Vaxart has twice received cease-work orders for its BARDA-funded protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, both times without a clear reason offered as to why. And in addition to restacking the influential ACIP group, the secretary has aimed to overhaul the Vaccine Injury Compensation program, which exists to protect vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits, stating that the program has devolved into “outright corruption” without offering any evidence to support that claim.
He may already have a new target as well. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Kennedy claimed that there is a CDC study that links the hepatitis B vaccine to a “1,135% increase” in autism rates. The hepatitis B vaccine is commonly given to infants and the CDC itself recommends it for essentially everyone.
It is clear to me that Kennedy does not trust the concept of vaccination, given his years of statements criticizing vaccines and his activities with the anti-vaccine group Children’s Defense Fund. Right now, his focus is on mRNA vaccine technology, but there is no reason to believe that’s where he’ll stop.
