RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines

US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he will cut $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed for diseases like influenza and COVID-19.

A total of 22 programmes – funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) – are being wound down, and "no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated," according to an HHS statement.

It comes as the strongest sign yet of a changing attitude to mRNA vaccines – long a target of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement – at the HHS under Kennedy.

In addition, Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC), which manages the authority's investment arm, BARDA Ventures, has also been ordered to cease all mRNA-based equity investments.

Kennedy – a prominent figure in the vaccine sceptic movement – said the funding was being pulled "because the data show[s] these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We're shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate."

He also claimed that mRNA vaccines against upper respiratory viruses pose "more risks than benefits" and "can actually prolong pandemics" because viruses mutate to evade protection.

That interpretation runs counter to the prevailing view that mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were instrumental in saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the HHS, contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech have been cancelled, others with Luminary Labs, ModeX, and Seqirus are being "de-scoped", while proposals for funding from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Seqirus, Gritstone, and others have been rejected or terminated.

In addition, nucleic acid-based vaccine collaborations with the Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI), AstraZeneca, HDT Bio, and Moderna/University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) are being "restructured".

Some projects that are already in the later stages - for example, with Arcturus and Amplitude - "will be allowed to run their course to preserve prior taxpayer investment," said HHS, which stressed that other applications of mRNA technology, such as cancer treatment, are not affected.

The move has been met with criticism from experts, including former Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams, who served during Trump's first term. He posted on social media that he had "tried to be objective and non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions - but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives."

Meanwhile, Dr Jake Scott, a clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, posted that "the claim that mRNA vaccine technology poses more risk than benefits is simply false."

He added: "The idea that mRNA vaccines 'failed' because they didn't block all respiratory infections reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of immunology. No vaccine for flu, RSV, or COVID has ever done that. The goal is preventing severe disease, and mRNA vaccines delivered."