I get it. I am as tired of writing about RFK Jr.’s dismantling of the evidence-based federal medical infrastructure as you are of reading about it. I have tried to focus on anything else, as you can see from my recent articles here. There is still a lot of bad medical science and misinformation out there that needs dealing with. But I couldn’t let this one pass.
As David predicted not too long ago, RFK Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has pulled $500 million in federal funding from research to develop mRNA vaccines for respiratory viruses. His justification for this move is straight-up misinformation. It is a reckless act that is highly likely to cost American lives down the road, although it will be impossible to tally exactly how many.
Kennedy claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”. He also said that his team, “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted.” Translation – his clown car of anti-vaxxers reached a predetermined anti-vaccine decision and will now try to justify it with misinformation.
For review, mRNA technology uses messenger RNA, which incorporates into the muscle cells, to produce viral proteins which elicit an immune response. In other words, instead of injecting the proteins, you inject the RNA code to produce the proteins. One of the main advantages of mRNA vaccines is that this platform can develop new vaccines and track strains very quickly, which is part of the reason why we were able to to quickly develop COVID-19 vaccines. mRNA vaccine so far have proven very safe and effective.
Kennedy’s claim that they pose “more risk than benefit” is a very specific empirical medical claim. This is not a matter of judgement or opinion, but rather of data and math. It is also provably wrong. The most comprehensive review we have to date looked at 99 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine internationally and found that the benefits far outweigh the risks. The study really just confirmed what previous research had also found.
Kennedy also said, “To replace the troubled mRNA programs, we’re prioritizing the development of safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate.” This is the line he is taking – there are better vaccines. Specifically he says he wants a universal vaccine which, “It could be effective — we believe it’s going to be effective — against not only coronaviruses, but also flu.”
Researchers have been working on a universal flu vaccine for decades. This is still a worthy line of research, and such a vaccine would be highly useful. But this has proven to be a tough nut to crack. Yet Kennedy is confident for not only a universal flu vaccine but one that also covers coronaviruses. So he wants to kill a proven and extremely promising technology that is only getting better, with clear advantages, for a unicorn. A cynical person might wonder if he is trying to divert attention to a low probability goal so he can continue to pretend to be pro-vaccine while scuttling vaccine research. Or maybe he is just the idiot that everyone thought he was.
Kennedy further claims that mRNA vaccines don’t track variants and lead to mutations which causes the vaccine’s efficacy to “collapse”. No current vaccines track variants. You have to develop new versions targeting the new variants. Here the mRNA platform is an advantage because developing new versions is much quicker than other vaccine platforms.
The mRNA vaccines do not cause the virus to mutate – they do that all on their own, even without vaccination. What causes new variants to arise more quickly is allowing a virus to spread uninhibited throughout a population – the more it replicates, the more opportunities there are for new mutations. Widespread vaccination therefore decreases new mutations and variants.
Also, efficacy does not just “collapse” – it slowly fades away as new variants get farther and farther away genetically from the variant the vaccine is based on. With the flu, there are also pre-existing variants that wax and wane over different flu seasons. And again this is not different for any vaccine platform – unless you have a universal vaccine, which we don’t have for these respiratory viruses.
Put simply, Kennedy is simply wrong here. He is making decisions based (charitably) on his overconfidence misunderstanding of science, and he appears to only be listening to the voices that already agree with him. Meanwhile, actual experts are horrified at this move:
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations.
Does RFK Jr. have the authority to cut this funding? Yes, unfortunately. Congress appropriates the funds, but the executive branch can direct it to specific priorities. However, congress still has the power to act. The simplest way would be to pass new legislation which specifically restores the funding. I don’t see this as very likely to happen – but perhaps if there is sufficient outrage from the public (write your congressman and senators) something might happen. I’m not holding my breath.
