{"id":277170,"date":"2025-10-04T12:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277170\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T12:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:56:16","slug":"rfk-jr-s-hhs-killed-a-research-grant-to-investigate-vaccine-safety-then-asked-the-researcher-to-publicly-present-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277170\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr.\u2019s HHS killed a research grant to investigate vaccine safety, then asked the researcher to publicly present results"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n About 90 seconds into his presentation <\/a>on Covid-19 vaccine safety at a closely watched meeting of advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, Dr. Bruce Carleton made a startling revelation: The government grant supporting his research had been abruptly terminated.\n <\/p>\n

\n The statement was surprising for a few reasons. Carleton had been asked to share his findings with a group entirely put in place by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after Kennedy summarily dismissed <\/a>all 17 previous experts on the committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP, in June. In its first two meetings, the newly composed committee has shown an outsized interest in vaccine safety, in line with Kennedy\u2019s frequent protest<\/a> that he\u2019s \u201cnot anti-vaccine; I am pro-safety.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet Kennedy\u2019s HHS canceled a major CDC grant focused on the subject in March, curtailing Carleton\u2019s work to understand genetic drivers of rare vaccine safety risks.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey canceled [a grant to study] vaccine safety, and yet now we\u2019re talking about vaccine safety,\u201d Carleton later told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Carleton\u2019s statement in the meeting <\/strong>was also surprising because, almost immediately, an HHS spokesperson denied that it was true.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFYI \u2013 as you see below, we did not cancel the grant,\u201d HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in an email to reporters during the ACIP meeting, providing a link<\/a> to the grant information on the agency\u2019s website.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nixon noted that the grant\u2019s \u201cperiod of performance\u201d ended March 25. The website, though, shows a negative subtotal of more than $2 million, suggesting money allocated to the grant that was unspent. Paperwork ending the grant shared with CNN states that \u201cthe purpose of this amendment is to terminate this award.\u201d And it\u2019s included on an HHS list<\/a> of terminated grants.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe grant was canceled,\u201d said Dr. Steven Black, the primary investigator of the project and co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network<\/a>, which received the award and supported Carleton\u2019s work. It \u201cwas supposed to run for more than a year after that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

\n Nixon didn\u2019t respond to CNN\u2019s requests for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n The idea of harnessing data from multiple countries to assess rare vaccine safety risks came about long before the Covid-19 pandemic; the playbook was established more than a decade earlier, for vaccines targeting the 2009 H1N1 flu, said Dr. Frank DeStefano, who was head of the CDC\u2019s Immunization Safety Office from 2009 to 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n Finland, and then several other European countries, detected an increased risk of narcolepsy<\/a>, or excessive daytime sleepiness, after the rollout of 2009 flu vaccines, and the CDC funded a multinational study to look at the issue, DeStefano told CNN. The connection was never detected in the US, and an association remained only in Sweden in the CDC\u2019s study<\/a>; DeStefano noted it still remains somewhat of a mystery.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe learned a lot from that project,\u201d DeStefano said. \u201cWe developed some of the methodology to be able to align data systems for different countries, establish standardized case definitions and how to gather the data so it could be analyzed comparably from different countries.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n So as billions of people were being vaccinated against Covid-19 in 2021, DeStefano and others reached for that playbook again; the CDC awarded $5.6 million to the Global Vaccine Data Network in April 2021 and an additional $4.5 million in 2022, for a total of a planned $10.1 million through April 2026, according to Black.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe wanted a big database, covering the different vaccines and different populations,\u201d DeStefano said. \u201cOne that would be able to detect these rare adverse events sooner.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Myocarditis, or heart inflammation, emerged <\/a>as a rare risk of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines as they were rolled out broadly, with the risk most pronounced in teenage boys and young men. It also was found to be a risk of infection with the coronavirus itself. People who experienced it after vaccination typically fully recovered, CDC analyses<\/a> have shown.\n <\/p>\n

\n Other vaccine technologies carried different safety risks; adenoviral vector vaccines \u2014 such as those made by Johnson & Johnson<\/a> and AstraZeneca<\/a>, which are no longer on the market \u2014 were linked with a rare risk<\/a> of blood clots.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Global Vaccine Data Network project was designed to study both, as well as other outcomes, Black said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was meant to guide public health policy not only in the US but also globally,\u201d Black told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Carleton, a researcher<\/a> in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, told those at the September ACIP meeting that he\u2019d planned to do a genetic analysis of 275 people who experienced adverse events after getting a Covid-19 vaccine, compared with people who were vaccinated and didn\u2019t experience those events.\n <\/p>\n

\n The work would serve two purposes.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFirst of all, it helps us understand the biological mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of adverse events,\u201d Carleton said. \u201cAnd second, in patients who have risk variants, we can allow for more personalized vaccine schedules; in the case of mRNA vaccines and myocarditis, switching patients to either protein or adenoviral vector vaccines, for example, would be one option.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Because the grant was canceled in March, Carleton said, he was able to do genetic analysis<\/a> of only 50 patients with myocarditis.\n <\/p>\n

\n It spurred discussion at the meeting nonetheless.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe data presented by Dr. Carleton on myocarditis was actually fascinating,\u201d said Dr. Grant Paulsen, an outside liaison to ACIP representing the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. \u201cI could quite closely geek out on that \u2026 and ask lots of questions on the genetics of vaccine-induced myocarditis versus that induced by Covid itself or other causes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Paulsen emphasized, though, that even as further monitoring for myocarditis is warranted, \u201cthe data are fairly clear\u201d on the overall benefits and risks of Covid-19 vaccination, particularly for the youngest children. \u201cContinued research is vital but should not be a barrier to families looking to access this tool to protect their children,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n A newly appointed ACIP member, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, praised Carleton\u2019s presentation and the suggestion of improving \u201cindividualizing care, even within vaccines.\u201d He also referenced the presentation to bring up what he called a dramatic increase of \u201cdysregulation between the autonomic nervous system and the body\u201d that he suggested he\u2019d been seeing in children in his own practice.\n <\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

\n That kind of interpretation worried other outside liaisons, who participate in ACIP meetings but don\u2019t vote on vaccine policy recommendations to the CDC like members of the committee do.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dr. Jason Goldman, the liaison representing the American College of Physicians, told CNN that he was concerned Carleton\u2019s presentation was skewed toward emphasizing concerns about vaccine safety. \u201cI felt that they were trying to make an increased implication of vaccine risks that we don\u2019t necessarily have evidence of,\u201d he said later.\n <\/p>\n

\n Carleton, who told CNN he gets vaccinated against Covid-19 to protect the kids and families he sees as a health-care provider, said he felt that his results were \u201cimportant data to share about myocarditis\u201d and that he thinks \u201cthe work needs to continue, that the surveillance model needs to be reinforced and refunded.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One ACIP member, Dr. Evelyn Griffin, who like Milhoan had been added to the committee by Kennedy three days<\/a> before the meeting, asked Carleton why his study had been canceled so abruptly. Carleton responded that he didn\u2019t know.\n <\/p>\n

\n Six months earlier, Black and his team had received a questionnaire from HHS asking them to state the public health value of the research, he told CNN. They received the questionnaire on a Friday and were given 48 hours \u2013 and 70 to 80 characters \u2013 to respond, he recalled. Two weeks later, the grant was canceled.\n <\/p>\n

\n The funding was terminated \u201cfor cause,\u201d according to the notice they received \u2013 the cause being the end of the Covid-19 pandemic declaration.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe end of the pandemic provides cause to terminate COVID-related grants and cooperative agreements,\u201d the notice read. \u201cThese grants and cooperative agreements were issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purpose has run out.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It was around the same time the Trump administration ended multiple Covid-19-related grants, including to state and local public health departments<\/a>. But even though the pandemic has been declared over, Covid-19 itself is still here, Black pointed out, and \u201cthe implications of this go way beyond Covid.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople would like to use the mRNA platform for other diseases, including cancer prevention,\u201d Black said. \u201cSo the implications of the safety data and identifying the risk factors and why people are getting these side effects go well beyond just the Covid pandemic.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy\u2019s hand-picked panel of vaccine advisers continues to focus on Covid-19 vaccines and their safety as well, taking a vote<\/a> at September\u2019s meeting on whether to require prescriptions to access them. The vote narrowly failed, with the committee chair breaking a tie.\n <\/p>\n

\n The committee had also invited Carleton to join its working group on Covid-19 vaccines; he said he presumes they didn\u2019t know that HHS had canceled his research funding.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy has been asked directly to reinstate the funding for the project and said he would look into it, according to Black, who noted that he hasn\u2019t heard anything back.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n As an infectious disease specialist, Black said, he\u2019s concerned that the conversations at the highest levels of vaccine policy in the US now focus more on potential side effects of vaccines than the diseases they mitigate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m old enough I saw someone die of diphtheria,\u201d Black said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a child suffer with tetanus. Babies with whooping cough turn blue, and it\u2019s extremely frightening.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n With the exception of smallpox, he said, \u201cnone of these diseases is gone; they\u2019re all out there waiting to come back.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Black himself got myocarditis after a Covid-19 infection and said he was quite sick. \u201cIt\u2019s not a trivial disease.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Considerations about vaccines need to account for the balance of benefits and risks, he said \u2013 with rigorous research to understand both.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cKennedy says he wants to follow the science; you can\u2019t follow the science if you\u2019re not funding the science,\u201d Black said. \u201cIf he\u2019s not generating the data that\u2019s necessary to identify people at risk or understand the side effects, what\u2019s he following?\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 90 seconds into his presentation on Covid-19 vaccine safety at a closely watched meeting of advisers to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":277171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-277170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115316010927846857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}