WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will cancel contracts and pull funding from several vaccines that are still under development to fight respiratory viruses such as COVID-19 and the flu.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary and a longtime critic of vaccines, announced on Tuesday in a statement that vaccine development projects totaling $500 million will be halted; all of them rely on mRNA technology.
The initiatives — 22 in all — are led by some of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, and their goal is to prevent infections from influenza, COVID-19, and H5N1.
mRNA vaccines have been credited with helping to slow the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Kennedy stated in the Tuesday release that he wants the health department to move away from mRNA vaccines, and urged the department to begin “investing in better solutions.” He did not provide details on what those technologies might be.
