{"id":15619,"date":"2025-08-22T06:55:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/15619\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:55:06","slug":"the-risks-of-trumps-turn-against-mrna-vaccines-grayson-logue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/15619\/","title":{"rendered":"The Risks of Trump\u2019s Turn Against mRNA Vaccines – Grayson Logue"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than four years ago, President Donald Trump heralded the arrival of safe and effective messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for COVID-19. He called them<\/a> \u201ca monumental national achievement\u201d and \u201cone of the greatest miracles in the history of modern-day medicine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mRNA platform enabled scientists to begin work on a vaccine within days of the publication of COVID-19\u2019s genetic sequence. Clinical trials for an mRNA vaccine began weeks later, just five days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But earlier this month, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced<\/a> the cancellation of more than $500 million in HHS contracts through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) that supported mRNA vaccine development. Trump himself seemed indifferent to the attack on arguably the most widely praised legacy of his first term. \u201cThat was now a long time ago, and we\u2019re onto other things,\u201d Trump said<\/a> when asked this month about Operation Warp Speed\u2014the program that helped speed COVID vaccine development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers and former biosecurity officials argue the administration\u2019s turn against mRNA will only leave the United States less able to respond to future disease and public health threats, even as geopolitical adversaries like China ramp up on investments in the technology.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s criticism of the COVID mRNA vaccines as having \u201cfail[ed] to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu\u201d is in keeping with his anti-vaccine stance and multifront rollback<\/a> of vaccine policy since taking over at HHS. His stated justifications for pulling back from mRNA vaccines rely on misrepresented<\/a> studies and unsupported claims about safety and effectiveness. \u201cThe idea that mRNA vaccines \u2018failed\u2019 because they didn\u2019t block all respiratory infections reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of immunology,\u201d explained<\/a> Jake Scott, an infectious disease researcher and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. \u201cNo vaccine for flu, RSV, or COVID has ever done that. The goal is preventing severe disease, and mRNA vaccines delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s advisers at HHS have made even more outlandish and unsupported claims about mRNA vaccines. Steven Hatfill\u2014a virologist who in May joined the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the office responsible for preparing against pandemic and biosecurity threats\u2014said<\/a> earlier this month on Steve Bannon\u2019s podcast, \u201cThere was no benefit to risk ratio for taking a messenger RNA vaccine. In fact, it was more dangerous to take a vaccine than it was to contract COVID-19 and be hospitalized with it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Studies have estimated<\/a> that COVID vaccines prevented more than 3 million additional deaths and 18 million hospitalizations in the U.S. alone. The vaccine platform is particularly valuable for pandemic response because of the speed at which mRNA vaccines can be developed and updated to fight newly emergent viruses and strains. The \u201cwhole virus\u201d vaccines that Kennedy says HHS will prioritize in lieu of mRNA utilize much older vaccine technology. These vaccines use inactivated or \u201cwhole killed\u201d viruses to trigger an immune response. Cultivating these vaccines requires growing and purifying viruses in a lab, an expensive and time consuming process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But mRNA vaccines use RNA to deliver a protein from the virus\u2014not the virus itself\u2014that triggers an immune response. Vaccines can be formulated, as was the case with COVID, almost as soon as the genetic code of the virus is known without the need to have a live sample of the virus itself, let alone grow large quantities of it in a lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kennedy said that canceled grants are part of a \u201cwind-down\u201d and \u201cbroader shift\u201d away from investments in mRNA vaccines. Instead, HHS will prioritize \u201cwhole-virus vaccines and novel platforms.\u201d The move followed the May cancellation<\/a> of more than $700 million in HHS funding to Moderna for developing mRNA influenza vaccines, including one against bird flu that had shown promising results in an early clinical trial. The termination also ended the government\u2019s \u201cright to purchase pre-pandemic influenza vaccines.\u201d The company said in a statement<\/a> it will \u201cexplore alternatives for late-stage development and manufacturing\u201d for the bird flu vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the short term, companies will likely shrink or end their work on the BARDA-funded projects. \u201cThe 22 terminated projects worth $500 million represent the expensive late-stage development that BARDA uniquely funds\u2014Phase 3 trials, manufacturing scale-up, and strategic stockpiling that private companies can\u2019t afford,\u201d argued<\/a> Scott, the Stanford infectious disease researcher.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the longer term, biotech investments in mRNA vaccines could fall off, and some investors are already considering<\/a> pulling back from mRNA vaccines. For the development and innovations that continue, researchers predict the work will find a home in other countries looking to capitalize on the vacuum left by the Trump administration. \u201cThe research is going to continue, but it\u2019s going to continue in Europe and Asia and China,\u201d said<\/a> Drew Weissman, the University of Pennsylvania researcher whose work on mRNA enabled COVID vaccine development and earned him a Nobel Prize<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For that reason, scientists and health officials who served in the first Trump administration have decried Kennedy\u2019s decision, saying HHS is surrendering a crucial biosecurity tool. \u201cEnding BARDA\u2019s investment in mRNA technology creates a national security vulnerability,\u201d said<\/a> Chris Meekins, the deputy assistant secretary in the HHS pandemic and biosecurity preparedness office during Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cThese tools serve as a deterrent to prevent other nations from using certain biological agents.\u201d Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during Trump\u2019s first term, issued a more dire warning<\/a>: \u201cPeople are going to die because we are cutting short funding for this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falling behind on mRNA technology would be like losing an arms race, according<\/a> to Rick Bright, who served as BARDA director during the first Trump administration. He called mRNA technology the \u201cequivalent of a missile defense system for biology \u2026 Adversaries who invest in this technology will be able to respond faster to outbreaks, protecting their populations sooner than we can. Right now, the United States has a decisive advantage in mRNA science, manufacturing capacity and regulatory expertise. But in an era where biological threats can be engineered, losing this competitive edge would leave the United States vulnerable and dependent on others for lifesaving tools.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The COVID pandemic provided something of a case study in the costs of lacking the most promising biotechnology. Jeff Coller, the director of the Johns Hopkins University RNA Innovation Center whose graduate student helped design the Moderna COVID vaccine,\u00a0 explained to The Dispatch that China relied on \u201cwhole virus\u201d or attenuated virus for its COVID vaccines during the pandemic. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work nearly as effectively as the mRNA vaccines,\u201d he said of China\u2019s response. When a pandemic viruses mutates, mRNA vaccines can also be quickly updated. \u201cIf you have an emergent pandemic, an emergency situation, where you desperately need to get this vaccine out to the population, or people are going to lose their lives, mRNA, no question, is the way to go,\u201d Coller added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

China seems to have taken this to heart. Outside of the U.S., the country currently hosts the most clinical trials<\/a> for mRNA vaccine candidates. \u201cChina is doubling down<\/a> on this, and soon will be the global leader in mRNA based medicines and therapeutics,\u201d Coller said, warning that in future pandemics the U.S. could be forced to acquire vaccines from China. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the GOP senator whose vote advanced Kennedy\u2019s nomination for HHS secretary, said<\/a> canceling the mRNA contracts \u201cconceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coller is also a founder of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines, an advocacy group consisting of biotech and pharmaceutical companies and leading mRNA research centers. He said the group\u2019s members have begun to contemplate moving their work elsewhere in light of the administration\u2019s turn against mRNA. \u201cIt was really a shot across the bow, a warning that the United States is really not a friendly nation for this technology,\u201d Coller said. \u201cMany of the membership that are involved in the mRNA business recognize that and say, \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to have to develop our technologies in other countries, move our brick and mortar somewhere else\u2019 because while the United States is retreating from the technology, most other countries are not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than four years ago, President Donald Trump heralded the arrival of safe and effective messenger RNA (mRNA)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[381,10503,14161,14163,18,135,19,17,12305,2101,14162,1787,14160],"class_list":{"0":"post-15619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-covid","10":"tag-covid-vaccines","11":"tag-department-of-health-and-human-services","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-national-security","17":"tag-public-health","18":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","19":"tag-trump-administration","20":"tag-vaccines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}