3 days ago
Scientists share concern over US vaccine funding cuts
The US Health Secretary's plan to cut half a billion dollars' worth of US government funding from mRNA vaccine programmes have been criticised by the scientific community.
The move by Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has proven highly controversial, especially as mRNA vaccines are seen as having been highly successful in combating Covid-19.
Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the UK's University of Reading, said the funding cut was 'regrettable' and could be seen as 'bonkers'.
'He really ought to be advised by experts in the field,' Prof Jones said of Mr Kennedy. 'Rational decision-making should always be based on testable science and not on opinion. It appears the current administration is largely based on opinion, even though that opinion is poorly informed.'
Prof Jones said scientific opinion was 'overwhelmingly in favour' of using mRNA vaccines, with large numbers of people having received them without significant problems.
Why has vaccine funding been cut?
Mr Kennedy said the US Department of Health and Human Services had 'reviewed the science, listened to the experts' when terminating 22 mRNA vaccine-development programmes.
This decision had been made 'because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu'.
'We're shifting that funding towards safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,' Mr Kennedy said.
Some axed projects involve the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, while the Global Health Investment Corporation, a partner organisation managing US government health investment funds, has been told to stop mRNA-related investments. Together, all the affected projects are worth nearly $500 million.
From now on, the focus will be on vaccine 'platforms with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices'. This will mean a pivot towards 'whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms'.
What are the international implications?
Prof Jones indicated the US decision could have widespread effects because of 'the sentiment it develops'. Other nations may decide to look at mRNA vaccines 'more strictly than would otherwise be the case'.
'If there's a feeling the market is going to be smaller because of this and because of the suspicion it generates, I guess going forward there will be a reduction in the amount of private funding going into mRNA vaccines,' he said.
Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases researcher and professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, called Mr Kennedy's decision 'retrograde' and warned that as a result 'some people would die' who would otherwise have been saved by protection from an mRNA vaccine.
He said the cutting of financial support for mRNA vaccine programmes was not based 'on what we know about the science of vaccine development'. Many scientists, he said, 'believe mRNA vaccines are the future for all vaccines'.
However, Prof Hunter said mRNA vaccine research would continue outside the US, with 'a lot going on in Europe, Japan, India and other countries'.
'It will certainly slow down the research effort and the time we need to get good, quality vaccines to market, but I don't think it will stop it,' he said.
He suggested some vaccine researchers might leave the US and move to, for example, Europe in the wake of Washington's move.
What are mRNA vaccines?
It was not until the Covid-19 pandemic that the first mRNA, or messenger RNA vaccines, for use in people were approved.
Covid-19 mRNA vaccines contain the genetic instructions for a person's own cells to produce a protein found on the surface of the virus. The immune response to these proteins typically offers protection if the vaccinated person is subsequently infected with Covid-19.
Work is continuing to develop mRNA vaccines against many other conditions, including flu.
In a report published last year in Vaccines, researchers said mRNA vaccines 'represent a revolutionary approach in influenza prevention', with the potential to significantly improve global management of the condition. Scientists say that mRNA vaccines are likely to offer protection against a wider range of flu types than existing flu vaccines can.
A study in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2023 said mRNA vaccines could be designed and developed quickly, stimulate a strong immune response and could be manufactured rapidly at relatively low cost.
There are numerous other types of vaccine apart of those based around mRNA. These include those that contain the pathogen – a virus or bacterium – in a form that is no longer harmful, either because it has been weakened or inactivated. Among the other types of vaccine are those made of proteins or sugars from the pathogen.
'Whole virus vaccines generally have been effective in the past, but we saw with Covid they were nowhere near as effective as mRNA vaccines,' said Prof Hunter.
He also said more severe vaccine side effects have typically been seen not with mRNA vaccines, but with bacterial whole cell vaccines, such as a shot against whooping cough.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine involved another type of technology, a viral vector, which is a modified virus that enters recipients' cells and contains genetic material that causes them to produce a protein from the Covid-19 virus. This stimulates an immune response that protects against subsequent Covid-19 infection.
While more than three billion doses of this vaccine were used and it is credited with saving millions of lives, it has been withdrawn as Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are seen as being more effective. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was also associated with rare and potentially fatal blood clots.
