{"id":321700,"date":"2025-08-06T05:26:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321700\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:26:15","slug":"rfk-jr-announces-us-is-scrapping-500m-of-vaccine-projects-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321700\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr announces US is scrapping $500m of vaccine projects | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

America’s vaccine-sceptic health secretary has announced $500m (\u00a3375.8m) worth of cuts to their development in the country.<\/p>\n

The US health department is cancelling contracts and pulling funding for jabs to fight viruses like COVID-19<\/a><\/strong> and the flu, it was announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Robert F Kennedy Jr, known as RFK Jr, said 22 projects developing mRNA vaccines will be halted. It is the latest in a series of decisions to reduce US vaccine programmes.<\/p>\n

Read more: Who is Donald Trump’s health chief?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The health secretary has fired the panel that makes vaccine recommendations, reduced recommendations for COVID-19 shots, and refused to endorse vaccines despite a worsening measles outbreak<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

RFK Jr claims the US will now prioritise “safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate”.<\/p>\n

Responding to the announcement of cuts, Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations, said: “I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business.”<\/p>\n

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n

\"Sky\u2019s<\/p>\n

2:10<\/p>\n

Is US politics fuelling a deadly measles outbreak?<\/p>\n

Dr Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said RFK Jr’s move was short-sighted and that mRNA vaccines “certainly saved millions of lives”, including during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

MRNA vaccines work by delivering a snippet of genetic code into the body that triggers an immune response, rather than introducing a real version of the virus.<\/p>\n

According to the UK Health Security Agency, the “leading advantage of mRNA vaccines is that they can be designed and produced more quickly than traditional vaccines”.<\/p>\n

Moderna, which was studying a combo mRNA shot that can tackle COVID and flu for the US health department, previously said it believed mRNA could speed up production of flu jabs compared with traditional vaccines.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Harry criticises report into charity<\/a><\/strong>
Reeves told to find ‘substantial’ tax rises<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Default\u2026 Add<\/p>\n

Image:
\n A COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. File pic: PA<\/p>\n

Scientists are also exploring how mRNA could be used in cancer immunotherapies and in other illnesses.<\/p>\n

At the White House earlier this year, billionaire tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison praised mRNA for its potential to treat cancer.<\/p>\n

RFK Jr touts ‘effective’ alternative<\/strong><\/p>\n

The health department said the abandoned mRNA projects signal a “shift in vaccine development priorities.”<\/p>\n

“Let me be absolutely clear, HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Mr Kennedy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Later, he said work is underway on an alternative – a “universal vaccine” that mimics “natural immunity”.<\/p>\n

“It could be effective – we believe it’s going to be effective – against not only coronaviruses, but also flu,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America’s vaccine-sceptic health secretary has announced $500m (\u00a3375.8m) worth of cuts to their development in the country. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-321700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114980165390178606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}