Singling out Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s worst decision is difficult, because the competition is fierce, but near the top of the list was his decision to terminate a series of federal contracts focused on developing mRNA vaccines. RFK Jr. also said he’s winding down additional federal investments in mRNA technology.
The condemnations from reality-based observers soon followed. Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations, told The Associated Press, “I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business.”
Around the same time, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as the surgeon general during Donald Trump’s first term, added via social media, “I’ve tried to be objective [and] non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions — but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives.”
A variety of prominent administration officials, including the president, tried to defend the move. They failed.
But now members of Congress appear eager to make new investments in mRNA research anyway. Stat News reported:
House appropriators have snubbed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by including an amendment in their 2026 spending bill that specifically funds continued messenger RNA vaccine research, despite his effort to roll it back.
Last month, the conspiratorially-minded Cabinet secretary specifically said that the Center for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (generally known as BARDA) would no longer finance mRNA research. To that end, Kennedy’s department terminated nearly $500 million in grants.
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee is nevertheless advancing a revised spending package that would invest $1.1 billion for “advanced research and development” at BARDA, including mRNA vaccines.
This doesn’t guarantee that the federal funds will go to the research, in part because the appropriations process is still underway and in part because the administration has demonstrated a radical habit of not spending money in the ways Congress has directed.
This is, however, fresh evidence that Kennedy’s move was not the final word on the subject.
For the public, that’s encouraging news. As regular readers know, at issue is a game-changing and lifesaving scientific breakthrough. “To scientists who study it, mRNA is a miracle molecule,” The New York Times reported in May. “The vaccines that harnessed it against Covid saved an estimated 20 million lives, a rapid development that was recognized with a Nobel Prize.” The same Times report added that mRNA research has raised hopes of possible treatments — perhaps even cures — for deadly cancers and a host of genetic and chronic diseases. Even Trump himself has celebrated mRNA vaccines — the president explicitly referred to them as a “modern-day miracle” — before he put the nation’s public health infrastructure in the hands of a guy who has claimed, among other things, that Wi-Fi causes “leaky brain.” The more lawmakers take steps to circumvent RFK Jr., the better. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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