UK scientists criticise US Health Department's $500m vaccine funding cut

A decision by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to cut $500 million in funding for vaccine development to fight respiratory viruses has drawn international criticism.

Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine critic, announced that 22 projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology would end and be replaced with “broader vaccine strategies”.

The mRNA technology is used in approved Covid-19 and RSV shots and was crucial to ending the pandemic.

The move has come under fire around the world, with infectious disease experts saying it will make future pandemics will be harder to stop without the help of mRNA.

Mike Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, described it as one of the most “dangerous” decisions in public health in half a century.

A scientist works on the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in 2020. / Credit: PA

While some vaccines use a weakened or inactivated piece of the virus to trigger an immune response, mRNA vaccines use a laboratory-created genetic code to inform cells how to make a protein to trigger the immune response.

Scientists are using mRNA for more than infectious disease vaccines, including exploring its use in cancer immunotherapies.

The health secretary criticised mRNA vaccines in a video on his social media accounts.

“To replace the troubled mRNA programs, we’re prioritising the development of safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in the video.

Infectious disease experts say the mRNA technology used in vaccines is safe, and they credit its development during the first Trump administration with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic

Imperial College London’s immunology professor Charles Bangham said mRNA vaccines had saved “millions of lives in the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“They were not developed overnight, but were the culmination of over ten years of research by several groups,” he said.

“mRNA vaccines have two great advantages over other types of vaccine: a vaccine against a new variant virus can be produced in large quantities very quickly, and they can quickly be adapted to contain a combination of mRNAs, to give protection against several variants simultaneously.

“mRNA vaccines should continue to be developed, because new and existing infections will continue to be one of the greatest challenges to health and health systems.”

Great Ormond Street Hospital’s consultant Dr David Elliman said the decision was a “worrying development”.

“This has implications, not only for vaccination programmes in USA, but around the world,” Dr David Elliman said.

“At a time when vaccination rates are falling globally, we need to follow the evidence, not ideologically led beliefs.

“Such misguided beliefs are likely to cause unnecessary suffering and death, particularly in children.”

Kennedy’s decision to terminate the mRNA projects is the latest in a string of anti-vaccine decisions, including pulling back recommendations around the Covid-19 shots, firing the panel that made vaccine recommendations and refusing to endorse vaccinations as a measles outbreak worsened.

In May, HHS also terminated a $590 million contract with Modern to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu.

“Let me be absolutely clear, HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Kennedy said.