STAT+: Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research
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This is a developing story. It will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced that the government\u2019s emergency preparedness agency will no longer fund work on messenger RNA vaccines, delivering a crippling blow to the country\u2019s capacity to develop vaccines during the next pandemic or public health emergency.<\/p>\n Kennedy said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, better known as BARDA, was terminating 22 grants supporting development of mRNA vaccines because \u201cdata show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.\u201d Studies dispute Kennedy\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n Kennedy said a few contracts that are in the final stages \u2014\u00a0he mentioned the companies Arcturus and Amplitude \u2014 would be allowed to run their course \u201cto preserve prior taxpayer investment,\u201d new mRNA-based projects will not be funded in future.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Continue to STAT+ to read the full story\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n