U.S. Well being and Human Providers (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (not pictured) and U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (not pictured) forward of a roundtable occasion as a part of the “Make America Wholesome Once more” (MAHA) agenda, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 15, 2025.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
The Division of Well being and Human Providers will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines which might be being developed to combat respiratory viruses like Covid-19 and the flu.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the well being secretary and a longtime vaccine critic, introduced in an announcement Tuesday that $500 million price of vaccine improvement tasks, all utilizing mRNA expertise, will probably be halted.
The tasks – 22 of them – are being led by a few of the nation’s main pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer and Moderna to stop flu, COvid-19 and H5N1 infections.
The mRNA vaccines are credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Kennedy mentioned within the Tuesday assertion that he desires the well being division to maneuver away from mRNA vaccines, calling on the division to begin “investing in higher options.”
He supplied no particulars on what these applied sciences could be.