Alastair Thomson, chief data officer at the HHS sub-agency, announced his resignation in opposition to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s “stupid” decision to cancel $500 million worth of contracts focused on mRNA technology.
Following the cancelation of $500 million worth of government contracts related to mRNA vaccine research by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a bureaucrat in related work is stepping down in protest.
In news first reported by Fierce Biotech, Alastair Thomson, the chief data officer at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health Projects (ARPA-H), has resigned his position, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn post. Thomson linked his resignation directly to Kennedy’s recent decision to cancel half a billion dollars in research set to be disbursed by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
“This is the single most stupid thing they could be doing,” Thomson wrote, according to Fierce. “mRNA vaccines are demonstrably the most effective and safest vaccines ever produced by humanity. They saved millions of lives during the pandemic, and continue to do so today.”
ARPA-H is a research funding agency within the broader HHS department. Created in 2022, ARPA-H works to invest resources in “transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs,” with programs that fund precision cancer therapies and develop tissue regeneration technology for osteoarthritis, among a spate of other projects. ARPA-H was allocated $1.5 billion in the U.S. Congress’s 2024 appropriations bill.
Kennedy canceled the mRNA projects because of unnamed safety issues related mRNA vaccine technology. He said he wanted HHS to focus on other technologies, including “whole-virus vaccines,” that have “stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices.”
The decision to cancel the BARDA contracts has been met with condemnation. Jonathan Kagan, distinguished scientist at Corner Therapeutics’ and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an opinion for BioSpace this week that unfounded antagonism to mRNA technology is “killing our best shot at a cure for cancer.”
NIH director Jay Bhattacharya offered an alternative explanation: the public does not trust mRNA technology. The comment, made on the War Room—a show hosted by far-right advocate Steve Bannon—does not match those made by Kennedy, who focused on alleged safety and manufacturing issues in announcing the cuts.
