What to know about mRNA vaccines as Trump admin pulls funding
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The Trump administration is decreasing funding for the development of mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, which were crucial in the response to COVID-19.
Why it matters: mRNA vaccines are a public health tool to mitigating future pandemic-like situations, as researchers can move fast at a lower cost than other vaccine systems.
- "mRNA vaccines use a genetic code to tell the body's cells to produce proteins that train the immune system," a Penn Medicine report said. "The result: 'plug-and-play' vaccines with rapid development times and lower costs."
Driving the news: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that the government would pull $500 million in mRNA vaccine development funding in order to focus on "safer, broader vaccine platforms."
- No new mRNA based projects will be initiated, HHS said. Some final-stage contracts for targets like pandemic bird flu will run their course.
What they're saying: "I've tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions — but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives," Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general during President Trump's first administration, said on X.
- "It's rhetoric of wellness ideologues who deny the benefits of mRNA vaccine technology in saving 3.2 million American lives in the pandemic," Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine vaccine researcher, said on X.
- "Also in my view it's [a] slap in the face for President Trump, given this is one of his best achievements."
What are mRNA vaccines? How do they work?
The big picture: mRNA vaccines use a molecule necessary for protein production, called messenger RNA, rather than part of an actual bacteria or virus, according to the National Library of Medicine.
- mRNA vaccines introduce a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein, prompting cells to produce the viral protein.
- People who get an mRNA vaccine are not exposed to the virus, nor can they become infected with a virus by the vaccine.
Flashback: mRNA was discovered in the early 1960s, and research into how it could be delivered into cells was developed in the 1970s, per Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The intrigue: The biggest challenge with mRNA was that it was taken up by the body and quickly degraded before it could "deliver" the RNA transcript and be read into proteins in the cells.
- Advances in nanotechnology allowed for fatty droplets, or lipid nanoparticles, to wrap the mRNA like a bubble and allowed entry into the cells.
Didn't the COVID vaccine use mRNA?
State of play: The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines use mRNA.
- "Thanks to decades of research and innovation, mRNA vaccine technology was ready," the Johns Hopkins report said. "With COVID, this technology got its moment and has proven to be extremely safe and effective."
Context: The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine gives cells instructions for how to make the S protein found on the surface of the virus, according to Mayo Clinic.
- The body creates antibodies that help clear the virus, if caught.
What else could mRNA vaccines help protect against?
Zoom out: Researchers at Penn Medicine are developing mRNA vaccines for infections including avian bird flu, all coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS, C. difficile, genital herpes, hepatitis C, HIV, influenza, leptospirosis, malaria, norovirus and tuberculosis.
- Moderna has mRNA vaccines in various levels of development to fend against RSV, HIV, Lyme disease, Mpox, several cancers and cystic fibrosis.
What we're watching: As of January, more than 120 clinical trials were testing the potential for mRNA vaccines in cancer treatment across various malignancies, according to research published in the National Library of Medicine.
- Researchers believe mRNA systems can be used to train the body's immune system to attack malignancies, creating a personalized medicine approach that could make certain cancers more treatable.
