Last spring, we reported on the possible fall from grace of messenger RNA technology within the US administration. This was despite the Nobel Prize awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, and despite the millions of lives saved by RNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, how did it end? 

As confirmed by Nature Biotechnology, US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is effectively canceling $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research, citing misleading claims about the safety and efficacy of these vaccines. The cuts affect 22 grants awarded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B. The US will continue to invest in other applications of the technology, particularly in oncology. The philosophy seems to be as follows. No to RNA vaccines against common infectious diseases, intended for large numbers of people, which have attracted the antipathy of part of the public following the obligations imposed during the pandemic. Traditional vaccines will be developed instead. Yes to research and development of RNA-based cancer therapies and other specific applications.

The decision has no defensible scientific basis, but the issue is political, one of public perception and a backlash against the anti-COVID measures that many Republicans have never accepted. The director of the National Institutes of Health explained his perspective in an editorial in The Washington Post. Jay Bhattacharya attributes the crisis of confidence in mRNA vaccines to excessive public pressure and the ‘arrogance’ of the Biden administration during the pandemic. He acknowledges that mRNA technology has revolutionary potential but cuts to the chase: “No matter how elegant the science, a platform that lacks credibility among the people it seeks to protect cannot fulfill its public health mission”.