The US Department of Health and Human Services is to cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like Covid-19 and the flu.
Robert F Kennedy Jr announced that 22 projects, totalling $500m (€432m), to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted. This is despite infectious disease experts deeming the vaccines safe and effective.
“We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them.
“That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions.”
Kennedy’s decision to terminate the projects is the latest in a string of decisions that have put the long-time vaccine critic’s doubts about jabs into full effect at the nation’s health department.
Since taking office, Kennedy, who spent two decades sowing misinformation around immunisation, has overseen a major overhaul of US health policy – firing, for example, a panel of vaccine experts that advise the government and replacing them with his own appointees.
In its first meeting, the new panel promptly voted to ban a longstanding vaccine preservative targeted by the anti-vaccine movement, despite its strong safety record.
He has also ordered a sweeping new study on the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism.