mRNA, once lauded as a scientific marvel, is now a government target

Boston Globe

5 days ago

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On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed it was canceling
'The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public,' HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said of the Moderna contracts. The White House did not respond to STAT's request for comment.
Moderna, which built its business on mRNA and
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'mRNA vaccines funded by Operation Warp Speed were essential to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing an estimated 20 million deaths worldwide, including more than 1 million in the United States,' Moderna told STAT. 'The efficacy and safety profile has been confirmed in over 2.5 billion people.'
Pfizer, Moderna's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine rival, also defended the technology. CEO Albert Bourla
Ending the Moderna contracts is the latest in a series of events signaling the administration's growing disdain for mRNA and COVID-19 vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration
Still, in a partial victory for Moderna, the FDA on Friday
Some of the attacks levied at mRNA are about the technology itself, while others stem from general vaccine skepticism and frustrations with vaccine mandates during COVID. But the impact is the same: Waning political support of mRNA is leading to
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'We were on the right avenue to really enhance our preparedness for the next pandemic, and we literally just killed it,' said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Osterholm has no financial ties to the mRNA industry.
There are signs that distrust of mRNA extends beyond COVID shots. After Oracle founder Larry Ellison said the Trump administration's $500 billion investment in AI could lead to personalized mRNA cancer therapies, various anti-vaccine Trump supporters
The opposition to mRNA could spook companies and stifle innovation on treatments for a wide range of life-threatening conditions. Novel cancer vaccines, gene-editing therapies, and rare disease medicines rely on mRNA. The cutting-edge CRISPR therapy used to edit out a genetic mutation causing
'What this means is that China is going to take over RNA therapeutics and RNA research and the United States is going to fall behind,' said Drew Weissman, a
Billions of doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, allowing them to be among the
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Much of the backlash against mRNA shots rests on the false idea that the vaccines can cause long-term organ damage or even alter a person's DNA. However,
This belief, combined with more general vaccine skepticism, has a strong champion in Kennedy, who has spread misinformation about mRNA in his books and through the anti-vaccine nonprofit he founded.
'As this book goes to press, the campaign to force unsafe COVID vaccines into children's bodies is reaching its peak,' he wrote in 'The Real Anthony Fauci,' his 2021 book about the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 'We can jettison this insanity if enough people refuse to participate in a new apartheid based upon forced medical procedures.'
Despite evidence to the contrary, Kennedy has asserted in his books that mRNA COVID vaccines killed more people than they saved, and caused more death and injury than they averted in teenagers.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks after his swearing-in as Secretary of Health and Human Services, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Feb. 13.
ERIC LEE/NYT
While he tried to distance himself from his past comments in order to be confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy has since made changes to vaccine policy and practice. Colleagues like NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya seem to have suspicions of mRNA, too.
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Last month, Bhattacharya was unenthusiastic about the technology, saying in an interview with
Manufacturers and researchers have been trying to address the skepticism of mRNA via
But the odds are stacked against them. Kennedy has elevated fellow leaders in the vaccine-critical movement into the nation's consciousness. Longtime confidante Stefanie Spear, now principal deputy chief of staff at HHS, helped Kennedy start a blog that promoted misleading information about vaccines.
Children's Health Defense CEO Mary Holland routinely attends Kennedy's events, as does Del Bigtree, who stepped down from the nonprofit group MAHA Action to pursue more vaccine-focused advocacy.
Others, like the physician-blogger Peter McCullough — credited by some with kickstarting the anti-COVID-vaccine era — and vaccine injury attorney Aaron Siri, were recently invited by like-minded senators to testify before Congress. In that hearing, they spread vaccine skepticism on a larger platform, arguing that crucial safety information has been kept from the public. Both men have a stake in that idea.
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Siri runs a law firm almost entirely devoted to litigating vaccine injury claims. He and Kennedy previously worked together on such cases. McCullough is a prolific mRNA critic on social media and in his newsletter. He also serves as chief scientific officer of alternative-health care group The Wellness Company, which sells products like an unproven 'Spike Detox' supplement for long COVID, and as head of the McCullough Foundation, which funds a variety of projects by vaccine skeptics.
McCullough told STAT he believes mRNA vaccines are not safe, and that his foundation is actively pushing for policies restricting their use. HHS staff and Kennedy reach out to him from time to time, he said. McCullough noted he's been most involved with
Idaho's
'We talked to some very senior officials, and they said one of the reasons you need to be here is because of the state activity,' Alspach said. 'They specifically cited Idaho.'
By now, the anti-mRNA sentiment has spread far beyond Idaho. Republican lawmakers in Illinois, New York, and Texas, among others, have introduced their own bills targeting mRNA vaccines and, in some cases, the mRNA platform more broadly. Several bills push to ban the technology altogether, while others are designed to change rules for vaccinated blood donors, or impose fines on providers who give mRNA shots. Conservative
Most of the bills are unlikely to gain traction; the Texas bill has made it the furthest, with the state senate
'It's kind of breathtaking how the field has shifted and done almost a 180, really,' said Kate Broderick, geneticist and chief innovation officer at mRNA manufacturer Maravai LifeSciences. 'During COVID, there was so much support, and it's really quite frightening, frankly, the pivot that's happened in a relatively short period of time.'
Alspach said the political backlash against mRNA is a uniquely American phenomenon. If the US government stops investing in the technology, he said, American patients will rely on research coming out of other countries on mRNA-based gene therapies, cancer treatments, and vaccines.
'This is the only place in the world where this is happening,' Alspach said. 'Other countries are rolling out the red carpet for this technology.'
The group has found it difficult to fend off attacks against the technology, as many critiques are vague or wrapped in general resentment about the handling of the COVID pandemic. The word 'mRNA' makes people think about vaccine mandates, school closures, and the theory that COVID originated in a lab, said mRNA researcher Jeff Coller, a co-founder of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines.
The mRNA vaccines' association with lingering COVID resentment was on full display at the congressional hearing that featured McCullough and Siri. The hearing, hosted by the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs' investigations subcommittee, was titled, 'The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines.'
Subcommittee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and other conservative lawmakers spent several hours rehashing arguments born in the pandemic — against lockdowns, masks, mandates, and more — now with added confidence and new data sources. They cited reports from vaccine-critical groups, and said there was no evidence COVID vaccines saved lives. (
Broderick said so far, his alliance has not had luck reaching anyone in the administration to directly express its concerns. The goal is to ask Kennedy, Bhattacharya, and others questioning the safety of the mRNA platform about their specific worries.
'What we would really love to do is say, can we have a dialogue about that?' Broderick said. 'What can we do together as a scientific community to allay any concerns or provide you with the data to support our standpoint?'