The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines in development to combat viruses causing diseases such as the flu and COVID-19.
The decision will impact 22 projects spearheaded by major pharmaceutical companies for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, according to HHS.
The move is one of a number of steps Robert F. Kennedy Jr has taken since coming into office as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In June, he sacked all 17 members of the US vaccine committee who provide official government recommendations on immunisations, replacing them with some officials who were more critical about vaccines.
RFK Jr also removed the COVID-19 vaccine from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for children and pregnant people.
What is the mRNA vaccine?
mRNA vaccines contain a piece of mRNA, a type of single-stranded molecule of RNA that is necessary for protein production.
The vaccine delivers instructions for making a harmless piece of protein identical to one inside a specific virus or bacterium. When the instructions are decoded and the protein is assembled, the immune system identifies it as a foreign body and begins producing antibodies.
These can attack the protein if it encounters it again in the form of a virus. The immune system retains a memory for producing antibodies.
Some vaccines work by using inactivated viruses to trigger an immune response, but mRNA vaccines teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response.
mRNA vaccines were used during the Covid-19 pandemic. Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official, told the BBC told that the cancellation of the vaccine funding signified the US "turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic".
Why has RFK Jr withdrawn funding?
RFK J announced that he was withdrawing vaccine funding due to claims that "mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses".
In a statement, he said that his team had "reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted".
"The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu," he said.
Kennedy also said that mRNA vaccines can help "encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine".
Are any of his claims about vaccines true?
Doctors and other health experts have criticised Kennedy’s views about vaccines in the past.
He has said previously that “autism comes from vaccines”. According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, two studies are cited by people who claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism, and both studies are critically flawed.
Kennedy has also said that the MMR vacine includes “aborted fetus debris”.
This is not true. Kennedy was referring to the rubella vaccine, which, like some other vaccines, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines taken from two elective terminations in the 1960s. However, no new fetal tissue has been used since.
Dr David Elliman, a consultant in community child health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said that he has spread myths about vaccination with “an utter disregard for the evidence”.
In regards to his recent claims about mRNA vaccines, health experts have explained that viruses mutate whether or not vaccines exist.
