Latest news with #PandemicCentre
Irish Independent
10-08-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Luke O'Neill: RFK Jr's cuts to US vaccine programmes signal a return to the dark ages
Citing not a shred of scientific evidence, Trump's health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has cut federal support for new vaccines that could have saved millions of lives Why is Robert F Kennedy Jr ignoring science? The US Department of Health and Human Services, which he runs, has cancelled 22 federal contracts for new vaccines based on the RNA technology that freed us from the Covid-19 pandemic. The move has caused consternation among doctors in the US and Europe. Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, head of Brown University's Pandemic Centre, said it was 'profoundly disappointing'. Dr Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, called it 'the most dangerous public health judgment that I've seen in my 50 years'.
Indian Express
09-08-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Why US funding cuts on mRNA vaccine research are significant
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has cancelled half a billion dollars in grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday (August 5). A total of 22 contracts with university researchers and private companies to develop new applications for mRNA technology have been terminated. The announcement has dismayed researchers who study infectious diseases, and consider mRNA technology the best option for protecting people during a pandemic. Note that mRNA vaccines helped end the COVID-19 pandemic and saved millions of lives across the world. Here is a look at why Kennedy has cancelled the funding and what the impact of the decision will be. But first, what is mRNA vaccine technology? Vaccines train our immune system to respond to pathogens. For instance, traditional vaccines use inactive or weakened versions of a virus to get the immune system to recognise the virus, and create tools to fight it. mRNA vaccines, on the other hand, give instructions to the body to produce a fragment of a virus, which then kickstarts the immune response. The biggest benefit of mRNA vaccines is that they can be developed within months and quickly altered as the virus changes, unlike traditional vaccines that can take years to develop and test. That's why researchers have been excited about them since they were first deployed to fight against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19. Several studies across the world are currently underway to find ways to use this technology to fight other diseases. So why did Kennedy cut the funds? Despite the advantages of mRNA vaccine technology, vaccine sceptics such as Kennedy have long distrusted it. Kennedy once called COVID shots 'the deadliest vaccine ever made'. On Tuesday, he posted a video on X, explaining his decision, and falsely claimed that mRNA vaccines did not protect against respiratory illnesses such as COVID and the flu, and that a single mutation in a virus renders the vaccine ineffective. 'As the pandemic showed us, mRNA vaccines don't perform well against viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract,' he said in the video. Kennedy did not provide any evidence to support his claim. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Centre at Brown University, told The New York Times, 'By issuing this wildly incorrect statement, the secretary is demonstrating his commitment to his long-held goal of sowing doubts about all vaccines… Had we not used these lifesaving mRNA vaccines to protect against severe illness, we would have had millions of more Covid deaths.' What can be the impact of the decision? Researchers have said that Kennedy's decision would slow down mRNA research, which leaves not only the US but also the whole world more vulnerable to future pandemics. While it is impossible to tell when the next pandemic will occur, there is a consensus among scientists that it will definitely happen, especially in the era of globalisation and human encroachment into new environments. Michael Head, a global health researcher at the University of Southampton, told The Guardian, 'Globalisation and the mixing of people and animals make things more challenging. And so a pandemic will happen at some point. We just don't know when.' The significance of mRNA vaccine technology also goes beyond tackling infectious diseases. For example, US researchers are trying to use the technology to treat cancers such as skin and colon cancers. Researchers are also looking for mRNA vaccines against other diseases, including Lyme disease, dengue fever, and AIDS.
