Despite the known skepticism of its leader Robert F Kennedy Jr, the Department of Health and Human Services quietly announced last month two new vaccines aimed at addressing “material threats to national health security.”
The vaccines are intended to be developed for use against Marburg virus and Sudan ebolavirus, two hemorrhagic fevers in the same family as the Ebola virus, which can cause uncontrolled bleeding and death.
A pre-solicitation notice was posted to a government contracting website on June 27 by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
BARDA is a center within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response within HHS which is responsible for the development of medical countermeasures – principally bioterrorism.
The notice of the new vaccines comes as Kennedy continues his overhaul of the department and makes cuts to research on infectious diseases.
A known vaccine skeptic, he recently canned the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, in order to restore "public trust above any pro or anti-vaccine agenda,” he said.
The ACIP is responsible for evaluating the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines and then presenting its findings to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy removed all 17 committee members last month and replaced them with several people who have also been critical of vaccines, saying his picks were “committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.”
The new vaccine proposals demonstrate an awareness within HHS of the dangers posed by further outbreaks of serious disease and the consequences of being unprepared.
The pre-solicitation notice notes that the Filovirus family, which includes Marburg virus and the Ebola and Sudan viruses, “are known to cause severe health consequences, including death, in humans” and that infections with EBOV, SUDV, and MARV “can lead to case fatality rates of up to 90 percent.”
The immediate need for MARV and SUDV vaccines has been emphasized by recent outbreaks, according to BARDA, which cites the SUDV outbreak in 2022 that resulted in 141 confirmed cases and 55 deaths.
Additionally, a MARV outbreak in 2024 led to 66 confirmed cases and 15 deaths.
The Marburg and Sudan ebolavirus vaccines that BARDA has proposed are not mRNA vaccines – which have been a specific target of Kennedy’s skepticism during the coronavirus pandemic.
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