STAT+: Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced that the government’s emergency preparedness agency will no longer fund work on messenger RNA vaccines, delivering a crippling blow to the country’s capacity to develop vaccines during the next pandemic or public health emergency.

Kennedy said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, better known as BARDA, was terminating 22 grants supporting development of mRNA vaccines because “data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” Studies dispute Kennedy’s claim.

Kennedy said a few contracts that are in the final stages — he mentioned the companies Arcturus and Amplitude — would be allowed to run their course “to preserve prior taxpayer investment,” new mRNA-based projects will not be funded in future.

Vaccine experts and people steeped in pandemic preparedness expressed horror at the news, which they suggested would leave the United States without substantial supplies of vaccines for months longer than peer countries at the start of the next pandemic.

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