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Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. cancels at least $500M in mRNA vaccine funding. What are the implications?
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced this week it is beginning a "coordinated wind-down" of federally funded mRNA vaccine development. This includes terminating awards and contracts with pharmaceutical companies and universities and canceling 22 investment projects worth nearly $500 million. While some final-stage contracts will be allowed to be completed, no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated, the HHS said. "We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted," Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release on Tuesday. "The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We're shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate." MORE: What we know about the safety, efficacy of mRNA vaccines amid recent scrutiny Infectious disease experts told ABC News that mRNA technology has been very successful in preventing severe disease, hospitalization and deaths, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially affecting our preparedness for future pandemics. Ending mRNA vaccine development may also squash enthusiasm for technology that has been hailed as a potential promise for cancer and HIV vaccines. "It's an excellent technology. It saved millions of lives and did it in a remarkably safe manner," Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News. "I think it's an unscientific move, a move that goes against existing science." Affecting future pandemic preparedness Last year, the federal government awarded Moderna $176 million to help expedite the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine. Earlier this year, the vaccine manufacturer received an additional $590 million to speed up the development. However, in its press release, the HHS said it was cancelling the award, which has been issued by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, to Moderna and the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told ABC News the wind-down is a blow to pandemic preparedness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA technology demonstrated its ability to scale up vaccine production quickly. "The message to the companies will clearly be that they can no longer rely on the U.S. government for supporting any mRNA vaccine work, which is unfortunate, or even tragic, because the mRNA platform is one of the few that we have for pandemic threats in terms of something that we can make a vaccine for very quickly," he said. "So what, what Mr. Kennedy's and HHS' actions are doing is weakening our pandemic preparedness and weakening our biosecurity." The HHS also said it was terminating contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech. Researchers had been working on using mRNA technology to develop a nasal influenza vaccine. Emory has also been working on a dry powder inhaled mRNA-based treatment for influenza and COVID with TFF Pharmaceuticals, funded by BARDA. It's unclear if this is one of the 22 contracts that have been canceled. MORE: What to know about the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines Hotez said COVID-19 and influenza can have very severe consequences and that it's incorrect for Kennedy to mischaracterize them as harmless upper respiratory infections. "COVID and flu are not [only] upper respiratory infections," he said. "The reason we develop vaccines for COVID and flu is because they cause systemic illness and lower respiratory infections and cardiovascular illness. … This is part of the anti-vaccine playbook, to diminish the severity of the illness, and to say something like influenza or COVID is an upper respiratory infection, it's just very, very misleading." Cancer vaccines, HIV treatments mRNA technology has also been hailed as a potential vector for providing personalized cancer treatments and protection against HIV transmission. In February, a small preliminary study published in the journal Nature found a personalized mRNA vaccine may reduce the risks of pancreatic cancer returning after surgery. Additionally, a University of Florida study found an experimental mRNA vaccine paired with anticancer drugs boosted an anti-tumor response. Meanwhile, earlier this month, an early-stage clinical trial found two mRNA vaccine candidates triggered a strong immune response against HIV. Results from the trial showed that 80% of participants who received one of two vaccine candidates produced antibodies. Although antiretroviral therapy has been the standard treatment for HIV infection, and is effective in preventing transmission, it is hard to scale up worldwide due to its costs, making mRNA vaccines to be anti-HIV vaccine strategy, researchers from the U.S., Germany and Romania wrote in a commentary in June 2022. It's unclear if any of the BARDA contracts are specifically for cancer vaccines or HIV vaccine development, but Hotez said the real damage is denigrating mRNA technology. "What he's done is he's caused uncertainty among the American people about the safety and effectiveness of mRNA for any condition, including cancer," he said. "And in fact, mRNA technology is probably the most exciting technology we have now for cancer and also other non-communicable illnesses. … Even though he may not be canceling any cancer vaccine contracts through BARDA, it may have collateral deleterious in terms of squashing enthusiasm for the technology." Offit added that mRNA is not brand-new technology. mRNA was discovered independently by two teams in 1961, including French and American molecular biologists. Breakthroughs in developing mRNA vaccines began in the early 2000s, eventually leading to the development of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020. This makes the technology primed for being used in other avenues, such as cancer vaccines, Offit said. "We now know a lot about mRNA," he said. "We know a lot about its safety. We know a lot about its safety in young children, including babies. We know a lot about it regarding gene therapy. We know a lot about this safety in terms of pregnant people, where that's often not the case with new technology." Offit went on, "So you have this background of information that enables you to move forward in a number of areas, involving babies or involving pregnant women. But there was an attempt by this administration to squelch that, to sit on all that for no good reason other than a political reason." Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
3 minutes ago
- New York Post
CBS host warns Trump admin plans for moon base could usher in new age of space colonialism
CBS News host Vladimir Duthiers questioned the Trump administration's plan to establish a base on the moon and drew parallels to Earth's history of colonialism. On 'CBS Mornings Plus' on Wednesday, Duthiers and co-host Adriana Diaz discussed the White House calling for more human space exploration and administration plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon to precede an eventual U.S. lunar base with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Advertisement Diaz asked if it was 'inevitable that we're going to have to go to the moon and try to colonize the Moon?' Tyson said that the United States is being 'reactive' in a race to the moon with China, and stated, to the laughter of the panel, that he does not want to 'live on the moon.' But Duthiers questioned if colonizing the moon was a good idea. 'We know how the age of colonialism worked on this planet,' the host said. 'Should we be trying to colonize and saying that there's a keep-out zone that no other countries can participate in having?' Advertisement Tyson replied by pointing out that it would be difficult to colonize an area that does not have people. 3 Duthiers questioned if it was a good idea to colonize the moon. CBS 3 United States astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the American flag on the surface of the Moon after he and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the Moon during the Apollo 11 space mission July 20, 1969. REUTERS 'Well, the — the real problem with the colonization history in Western civilization is that there were people already there,' Tyson said. Advertisement Duthiers and Diaz agreed, and Tyson added that 'there are no moon beings that were displaced as far as we know.' Tyson later criticized administration plans to decrease funding to NASA. 3 Tyson said that the moon would be difficult to colonize because no one lives there. CBS 'What's not on brand is to cut science programs, not only in NASA, but across the board, and then say, we want to excel in this one spot,' Tyson said. Advertisement 'Well, in the 1960s, science was a major investment profile of the United States,' he continued. 'And by the way, it's not on brand even for Republicans, because Republican administrations since the Second World War have had a higher annual increase, average annual increase, in the science budget than even the Democrats.' 'So Trump's decision to cut science is not on brand for even being a Republican,' Tyson added.
4 minutes ago
Stuck astronaut Butch Wilmore retires from NASA less than 5 months after extended spaceflight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- One of NASA's two previously stuck astronauts has retired from the space agency, less than five months after his unexpectedly long spaceflight came to an end. NASA announced Butch Wilmore's departure on Wednesday. Wilmore and Suni Williams launched last summer as test pilots on Boeing's first astronaut flight. What should have been a weeklong trip to the International Space Station turned into a stay of more than nine months because of Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner. Starliner came back empty, and Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in March with SpaceX. Wilmore, 62, had already retired from the Navy. Williams, 59, also a retired Navy captain, is still with NASA. She joined Second Lady Usha Vance at Johnson Space Center in Houston earlier this week, taking part in a summer reading challenge for schoolchildren. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Wilmore logged 464 days in orbit over three missions. His final spaceflight made up nearly two-thirds of that total: 286 days. 'Throughout his career, Butch has exemplified the technical excellence of what is required of an astronaut," NASA's chief astronaut Joe Acaba said in a statement. 'As he steps into this new chapter, that same dedication will no doubt continue to show in whatever he decides to do next.'
