Ars Technica has reached the NIH and HHS for comment and will update this story with new information provided. The agencies did not respond to comments requests from KFF.
Kennedy's wrong information
Before Kennedy became the best health officer, Kennedy had long poured against vaccines and was one of the world's most prominent proponents of anti-vaccine and most productive distribution of wrong information and disinformation about vaccines. A study from 2019 showed that Kennedy was the only leading source of anti-vaccine advertisements on Facebook. Kennedy then faced Bans of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram for spreading wrong information.
Researchers blame Kennedy and the Trump administration directly for the vaccine investigation attack.
“Kennedy's war against vaccines started,” the MRNA vaccine researcher in Philadelphia told KFF.
“No research will be financed by NIH on MRNA vaccines,” said the scientist in New York Square The Outlet. “Maga people are convinced that these vaccines have killed and mutilated tens of thousands of people. It is not true, but they believe that.”
Kennedy has generally made various statements against vaccines, as well as mrna -vaccines specifically. He wrongly claimed that the vaccine causes serious damage, including causing neurodegenerative diseases, such as those of Parkinson's. In 2021, Kennedy submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration during the peak of the Pandemie to withdraw the permission of COVID-19 vaccines and to abandon the approval of future COVID-19-vaccines. In the meantime, a study in 2022 estimated that the vaccines had saved more than 3 million lives and had prevented more than 18 million hospital admissions.
The recent movements of the NIH are not the first sign that Kennedy will use its powerful position to attack MRNA vaccines. At the end of last month, Bloomberg reported that HHS is considering canceling a $ 590 million subsidy to vaccine maker Moderna to develop mrna vaccines against potential pandemic influenzaviruses. This includes the H5N1 virus that is currently destroying our poultry and spreads wildly in dairy cows.
An HHS spokesperson said the media at the time that “Although it is crucial that the American department and health and human services support plandemic preparedness, four years of the failed supervision of the BIDEN -Administration have made it necessary to assess agreements for vaccine production.”
It remains unclear what happens to that subsidy review. Moderha refused to comment when Ars contacts Monday for possible updates.
