(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has announced it is “winding down” almost $500 million worth of mRNA vaccine projects and rejecting future exploration of the technology in favor of more conventional vaccines, in perhaps the biggest delivery yet of what his supporters hoped for when President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the department.
“We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” Kennedy said in a Tuesday press release. “BARDA [the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority] is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
“Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them. That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions,” Kennedy added.
We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted. BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward… pic.twitter.com/GPKbuU7ywN
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 5, 2025
Some projects will be canceled outright, while others will be modified to shift focus away from mRNA and toward other work. “While some final-stage contracts (e.g., Arcturus and Amplitude) will be allowed to run their course to preserve prior taxpayer investment, no new mRNA-based projects will be initiated,” HHS explains.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who voted to confirm Kennedy after receiving assurance he was less opposed to conventional vaccines than his history suggested, said the move has “conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease,” and “works against” President Trump’s goals to “Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again.”
READ: mRNA vaccines linked to genetic changes that can cause cancer, autoimmune disorders
When asked about HHS’s decision the next day, Trump said “we’re going to look at that” before declaring that his first administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, under which the COVID-19 shots were developed in record time, was “considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” but suggested now the focus was on other solutions for other diseases. “We are speaking about it, we have meetings about it tomorrow … and we’ll determine,” the president said.
Whether or not mRNA research will resume in the future under more rigorous standards, the technology has drawn controversy due to its use by the most prominent COVID-19 shots, which were developed in record time by the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
The federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports 38,709 deaths, 221,030 hospitalizations, 22,331 heart attacks, and 28,966 myocarditis and pericarditis cases as of June 27, among other ailments. U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) researchers have recognized a “high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination,” leading to the conclusion that “under-reporting is more likely” than over-reporting.
An analysis of 99 million people across eight countries published in the journal Vaccine “observed significantly higher risks of myocarditis following the first, second and third doses” of mRNA-based COVID shots, as well as signs of increased risk of “pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis,” and other “potential safety signals that require further investigation.” In April 2024, the CDC was forced to release by court order 780,000 previously undisclosed reports of serious adverse reactions, and a study out of Japan found “statistically significant increases” in cancer deaths after third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 shots, and offered several theories for a causal link.
In May, U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Marty Makary and vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad announced that there would no longer be blanket recommendations for all Americans to receive the shot, but the “risk factors” it would still be recommended for include asthma, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney diseases, a handful of chronic liver and lung diseases, diabetes, disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, heart conditions, HIV, dementia, Parkinson’s, obesity, smoking, tuberculosis, and more. Kennedy Jr. subsequently announced COVID shots would not be recommended to healthy children or pregnant women.
However, in June, the Trump administration approved a new mRNA-based COVID-19 shot from Moderna, for “individuals who have been previously vaccinated with any COVID-19 vaccine and are: 65 years and older, or 12 through 64 with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.”
