RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in U.S. funding for vaccine development

WCCO-AM / 830 WCCO

The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.

Transcript

00:00For some illnesses, mRNA vaccines may be very useful, and that would include cancers.

00:09But for upper respiratory infections, we canceled 22 trials for upper respiratory infections.

00:17But right now, we're developing a universal vaccine at NIH, which is a vaccine that addresses the entire phylum of viruses.

00:26And so it's a vaccine that mimics natural immunity, and it is effective against any kind of mutation.

00:38So it doesn't drive the virus to mutate, and it could be effective.

00:43We believe it's going to be effective against not only coronaviruses, but also flu.

00:49And it's going to be a much safer and much more effective vaccine.

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