As top US health officials turn against some mRNA vaccines, experts fear for the country’s preparedness for the next pandemic and worry that other vaccines will be targeted next.
Donald Trump’s administration recently canceled a $766m award to Moderna on the research and development of H5N1 bird flu vaccines, and officials have announced new restrictions and regulations for Covid mRNA vaccines – actions that signal a move away from the breakthrough technology.
These changes add to other vaccine-related shakeups at health agencies, including layoffs and resignations of top vaccine officials and the abrupt termination of HIV vaccine research.
On Monday, Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of health and human services, announced he was disbanding the independent advisory committee on vaccines for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“I think mRNA vaccines are particularly at risk, although I think all vaccines are at risk,” said Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
“I think that this administration will do everything it can to make vaccines less available, less affordable and more feared.”
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines heralded a major breakthrough in battling the Covid pandemic, building on three decades of scientific work and earning a Nobel prize.
The Covid vaccines, some of which were co-developed by US government scientists, were taken by millions of people around the globe, and international scientists and officials closely monitored their side effects and effectiveness.
mRNA vaccines and therapeutics show promise for treating or preventing certain cancers, rare conditions and infectious diseases – including, potentially, the next pandemic, experts said.
“We don’t know what the next pandemic virus is going to be,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.
With mRNA, she said, “you can pivot faster when you find a new virus to make a vaccine that’s tailored to that virus”.
The mRNA vaccines also don’t need to be incubated in eggs, which is time-consuming and potentially difficult if there are egg shortages from bird flu outbreaks.
In 2009, the US didn’t have enough vaccines to battle the swine flu pandemic, Nuzzo said. “It seems like we’re determined to repeat those mistakes.”
Despite their promise, mRNA vaccines have been plagued by misinformation.
Some skeptics believe the vaccines affect fertility or cause birth defects, though research shows no link – and, in fact, studies show that the vaccines reduce these risks by preventing infections with Covid, which can be especially dangerous to pregnant people and newborns.
Because mRNA sounds similar to DNA, some people mistakenly think it interferes with their genes. Conspiracy theorists also claim the vaccine causes people to die suddenly, or that the shots implant microchips or impart 5G connectivity.
Meghan McCain recently endorsed, in a now-deleted social media post, an unregulated supplement company’s “spike detox” for those who “regret” getting vaccinated.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, called the mRNA Covid shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made,” incorrectly claiming the vaccines cause more illnesses and deaths than they prevent.
Kennedy rose to greater prominence through the pandemic as previously fringe conspiracies about vaccines began dominating more mainstream narratives.
“Anti-vaccine sentiment goes back to the first days of vaccines in the 1700 and 1800s,” said John Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
“It’s been a perpetual theme in society for 200-plus years, but it has been turbocharged by the Covid pandemic.”
Some states are now considering laws against mRNA vaccines, and US health officials have taken several steps to limit Covid shots in recent weeks.
Officials with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to limit boosters to older people and those with certain health conditions, as well as plans to conduct placebo-controlled clinical trials again.
The CDC removed the vaccination recommendation for pregnant people and softened the recommendation for children’s shots.
About 165,000 Americans were hospitalized and 40,000 died in the previous year because of Covid, the CDC said at an April meeting.
About 6,700 of those hospitalizations were among children, especially young children, and 152 children died from Covid in that time, the data showed.
About 5% of children under five are vaccinated against Covid – rates much lower than other age groups.
“That’s why, if you look at the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths for children now, especially young children less than four years old, it’s really not much different than the beginning of this pandemic,” Offit said.
There’s also “extensive evidence” for benefits to pregnant people and their babies, he said.
While the FDA recently approved Moderna’s “next generation” Covid vaccine, which was even more effective that their current shot in clinical trials, the agency limited the new shot only for older adults and for people aged 12 to 64 with health conditions putting them at higher risk.
The FDA also announced new requirements for mRNA Covid vaccine makers to add additional warnings about the risks of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, based on data the FDA has not made public.
During the Biden administration, Moderna received two awards totaling $766m to develop potential bird flu vaccines.
Despite the changeover in administrations, Moderna’s work continued as normal – until February, when health officials said in an article that the funding was being reviewed. Moderna hadn’t received any notification of this review, which recently culminated in having the funding cancelled.
Halting the H5N1 vaccine research, which was in phase 3 trials, leaves the US vulnerable in a potential flu pandemic, Nuzzo said. It also means other countries could build upon US investments to procure the vaccines for themselves.
mRNA has shown promise in treating pancreatic cancer and other cancers, as well as rare conditions and hard-to-treat infectious diseases.
Moderna, for instance, is working on vaccines for melanoma, lung cancer, norovirus, flu, and CMV, or cytomegalovirus, a fairly common infection that can cause lasting health problems for infants. The company also has an RSV vaccine, currently approved for older adults, that could be expanded for other age groups.
But those efforts could be hampered by the administration’s moves against mRNA and terminations of vaccine scientists and independent advisors who offer vaccine recommendations.
“We don’t want to see kids kicked out of school because a 12-year-old girl is not getting her fifth Covid booster shot,” Marty Makary, head of the FDA, said in a recent interview. Yet no states require Covid vaccination for school attendance.
Pushing back against mandates is a common tactic from anti-vaccine activists working to dismantle all vaccine mandates, Offit said.
In addition to claiming the Covid vaccines are deadly, Kennedy has “also said no vaccine is beneficial”, he said.
Kennedy recently unveiled a sweeping and controversial $50m research project on autism, including an autism research database.
If that effort somehow links autism to vaccines – despite decades of studies showing no connection – it could open lawmakers up to lawsuits, Offit said.
“He could manipulate the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,” Offit said. If Kennedy adds autism to the compensable list of injuries, “it would break the program”.
That would mean the people who experience very rare severe side effects from vaccines may then face challenges getting compensated.
And it could prompt vaccine makers to stop producing routine childhood immunizations because of legal liability. “It’s a fragile market,” Offit said.
Kennedy “is an anti-vaccine activist, science denialist and conspiracy theorist”, he continued. “I think that he will continue this onslaught against vaccines.”
