HHS Cancels $500M in mRNA Vaccine Contracts Under Kennedy Leadership

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced the cancellation of nearly $500 million in contracts supporting messenger RNA vaccine development, marking a significant policy reversal for technology that delivered COVID-19 vaccines in record time during the pandemic. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will terminate 22 mRNA projects in total, including contracts with major pharmaceutical companies Moderna, Pfizer and CSL Seqirus.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. justified the decision by claiming that mRNA vaccines "fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu," a statement that contradicts evidence from numerous clinical trials demonstrating the vaccines' safety and efficacy. Kennedy indicated that funding would instead be redirected toward what he characterized as "safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate."

The mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership were administered to hundreds of millions of people globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Large-scale clinical trials demonstrated their high effectiveness in preventing serious disease outcomes and established their broad safety profile. While research identified an association with myocarditis in young men, experts note the relative risk remains small and that COVID infection itself can cause similar inflammation.

The rapid development of mRNA vaccines represented a landmark achievement in pandemic response, enabled by close collaboration between the U.S. government and pharmaceutical companies during the first Trump administration. The technology's key advantage lies in its ability to be quickly designed and modified to match circulating virus variants, making it an essential tool for future pandemic preparedness.

"BARDA invested in mRNA technology precisely because it could deliver safe, scalable vaccines in record time, a capability proven during COVID. By dismantling that platform, we're crippling our front-line defense, just ahead of unknown biological threats," Rick Bright, the director of BARDA during the first Trump administration, wrote in a post on X.

Vaccine experts have expressed concern about the implications of this decision for future pandemic readiness. "It's a giant step backward for science," Paul Offit, a vaccine expert and professor of pediatrics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said in an interview. "The research and development that was being done by BARDA was getting us ready for the future and this makes our future less bright."

Kennedy's actions as HHS secretary have included firing a CDC vaccine advisory panel and replacing members with hand-picked successors, modifying CDC recommendations for COVID vaccines in pregnant women and children, and overseeing stricter FDA approval standards for the shots. "After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for these respiratory viruses," Kennedy said in a video on X.

HHS clarified that other applications of mRNA technology within the department remain unaffected by this announcement, limiting the impact to vaccine development programs specifically.

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