The Bulletin July 29, 2025
Why it matters: While early signs suggest U.S. obesity may be plateauing, experts credit GLP‑1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic—not MAHA—for the trend. Critics warn the administration risks taking credit for changes driven by pharmaceutical breakthroughs, not policy. MAHA's efforts, such as banning food dyes and urging soda recipe changes, lack regulatory force and may distract from structural reforms. Simultaneously, federal cuts to health programs undercut its goals.
Read more in-depth coverage:
Ozempic Could Change Births in America
TL/DR: "The intention of what RFK Jr. wants in this area is good," said Dr. Robert Klitzman, professor of psychiatry and director of the bioethics program at Columbia University.
What happens now? Experts say meaningful change requires balancing prevention with treatment and worry that misattributing success could undermine long-term public health strategy.
Deeper reading America's Obesity Epidemic Is Finally Easing. Will MAHA Take Credit?
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UPI
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Kennedy ends federal mRNA vaccine projects over experts' objections
1 of 3 | US President Donald Trump, left, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), who announced the department will pull back from research on mRNA technology, which was used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Photo by Eric Lee/UPI | License Photo Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will begin pulling contracts to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses using mRNA technology, which was used for the COVID-19 shot. Department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the move in a video posted to X on Tuesday saying that it will terminate 22 contracts worth $500 million after officials determined the "technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses." "Let me be absolutely clear," said Kennedy. "HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them, that's why we're moving beyond the limitations of mRNA for respiratory viruses and investing in better solutions." The announcement follows other actions by Kennedy, a vocal vaccine critic, to reshape the federal government's approach to public health in ways that have rankled mainstream health experts. Kennedy has replaced members of a vaccine advisory panel with skeptics and stopped recommending COVID-19 inoculations for healthy children, contradicting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations. The use of mRNA technology is credited with hastening the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. But its rapid development and the novelty of the technology have left lingering worries over its safety and effectiveness despite reassurances from experts. Like previous moves, Kennedy's decision to end the contracts has drawn criticism from medical and public health experts. "I've tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions -- but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives," Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as Surgeon General in the first Trump administration, said in a post on X. "mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines... and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions." Most vaccines have worked by using a weakened or dead virus to trigger a response in a patient's immune system. Vaccines that use messenger RNA, or mRNA, instead use a molecule that causes cells to replicate a part of the virus, triggering an immune response. A new flu vaccine developed by Moderna using the technology has shown promise. Kennedy said in his announcement that mRNA is ineffective and that vaccines using it encourage new mutations of the virus they are intended to target. He suggested the COVID-19 vaccine prolonged the pandemic and that the department would focus on research on "whole virus vaccines and novel platforms." Dr. Jake Scott, a clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a post on X that "the claim that mRNA vaccine technology poses more risk than benefits is simply false." "What poses risk is abandoning the most adaptable, scalable vaccine platform we've ever had," he wrote. "Halting future development undermines pandemic preparedness at a time when we can least afford it."
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Foods to Avoid with Ozempic
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HHS slashes funding for mRNA vaccine development
US Health and Human Services is 'winding down' its mRNA vaccine development and will instead fund other vaccine platforms through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the agency said Tuesday. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that BARDA would terminate 22 mRNA vaccine development investments, suggesting the vaccines 'fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu,' despite evidence they protect against severe disease and death from Covid-19 and show promise against influenza. HHS said some final stage contracts will continue, but 'no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated.' 'We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,' Kennedy said. 'Going forward, BARDA will focus on platforms with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices,' HHS said. 'Technologies that were funded during the emergency phase but failed to meet current scientific standards will be phased out in favor of evidence-based, ethically grounded solutions – like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms.' Messenger RNA is a single strand of the genetic code that cells can 'read' and use to make a protein. With the Covid vaccine, mRNA instructs cells in the body to make the particular piece of the virus's spike protein. When the immune system sees it, it recognizes it as foreign and is then prepared to attack when there is an actual infection. The vaccines were particularly useful during the Covid-19 pandemic because they can be developed and manufactured quickly. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that mRNA vaccines developed under Operation Warp Speed during the first Trump administration were highly effective at preventing severe disease and were repeatedly demonstrated to be extremely safe. The Trump administration and Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine claims, had previously said they were evaluating mRNA projects. In May, HHS also terminated a $590 million contract with Modern to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu. Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician who directs the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital, said Tuesday's HHS announcement will 'promote their pseudoscience agenda and weaken our nation's biosecurity.' 'The mRNA technology, like all biotechnologies, has strengths and weaknesses, but for a pandemic situation with a new and previously unknown pathogen, or for cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutics it has distinct advantages,' Hotez said. 'HHS under Mr. Kennedy is telling us that we should no longer look to the federal government for innovation in biomedicine. The states are on their own.' HHS said it is canceling BARDA's award to Moderna/UTMB for an mRNA vaccine for H5N1, known as avian flu. It is also terminating contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech. Emory has been working on a dry powder mRNA antiviral platform that could be inhaled and Tiba is working on a platform that uses a nanoparticle carrier technology, according to the BARDA website. HHS also said it is 'de-scoping' mRNA-related work in contracts it has with Luminary Labs, ModeX, and Sequirus. HHS said it was also rejecting or canceling multiple pre-award solicitations with proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Sequirus, Gritstone and others. And it was also restructuring collaborations with the US Department of Defense that would impact nucleic acid-based vaccine projects with AAHI, AstraZeneca and HDT Bio. HHS said the impacted projects were worth about $500 million. 'Other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement,' it said. In a statement, Moderna spokesman Kelly Cunningham said, 'We are not aware of any new contract cancellations by BARDA involving Moderna. As previously announced in May, our pandemic flu contract was canceled, and we do not currently have any active collaboration with BARDA.' A spokesperson for Gritstone said the company ceased operations 'as a company some time ago.' AstraZeneca declined to comment. CNN reached out to Tiba Biotech, Emory, Pfizer, ModeX, Luminary Labs, CSL Seqirus and Sanofi for a response. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an outside vaccine adviser to the FDA criticized Kennedy for making 'a policy decision again that contradicts the scientific data.' 'He has said things like the mRNA vaccines are unnecessarily dangerous,' Offit said. 'It's just wrong. I mean it's actually remarkably safe and it's effective.' 'A decision based on cutting back all this funding based on false statements is just hard to watch,' Offit added. If another pandemic comes 'we'll just be behind the eight ball again,' without additional research into mRNA vaccines. 'All it does is put us at unnecessary risk for no good reason and just a few bad reasons too,' Offit said. Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious diseases doctor in California who worked many long days treating patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, said he lost several patients early in the pandemic, but the mRNA vaccines brought major changes by safely protecting billions of people from severe disease and death. 'I cannot really convey accurately what a profound difference there was in the hospital pre vaccine and post vaccine and that was thanks to the mRNA technology,' said Scott, a clinical associate professor, medicine - infectious disease with Stanford Medicine. To hear that HHS was going to eliminate investment in mRNA vaccines, Scott said, is 'really depressing.' 'This just hits differently. It makes me sad. It's kind of heartbreaking,' said Scott.
