The Trump administration Department of Health and Human Services has canceled a $766 million contract with Moderna to complete the development of a vaccine to protect humans against potential pandemic flu viruses, including bird flu. Outbreaks in animals have hit all 50 U.S. states and the disease has started jumping to the human population. Experts are expressing concern and outrage over the decision, calling it "a significant blow to pandemic preparedness."
Moderna's bird, or avian, flu vaccine was to be built on its mRNA technology that successfully helped end the COVID pandemic. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a promoter of vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories, has expressed opposition to mRNA vaccines in particular, according to The Washington Post.
"The cancellation means that the government is discarding what could be one of the most effective and rapid tools to combat an avian influenza outbreak," Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told Reuters.
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Secretary Kennedy this week also canceled the CDC's recommendation of coronavirus vaccine boosters for pregnant women and healthy children, another action that has been met with strong opposition by medical experts.
"Bird flu has infected 70 people, most of them farm workers, over the past year as it has spread aggressively among cattle herds and poultry flocks," Reuters noted. Secretary Kennedy "has questioned the use of vaccines and earlier this year drew censure from some in the U.S. Congress after he suggested in a television interview that poultry farmers should let the bird flu spread unchecked through their flocks to study chickens who did not contract it."
In 2023, the World Health Organization warned of reports of mammals being infected with the H5N1 bird flu, and urged vaccine manufacturers prepare for any possible bird flu pandemics in humans.
As recently as March, experts from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), urged "urgent global action on pandemic preparedness to close dangerous gaps in the world's ability to develop and deliver new protective vaccines." That report specifically mentioned bird flu.
Pointing to a news report on HHS canceling the Moderna bird flu vaccine contract, Gabrielle A. Perry wrote: "As an epidemiologist and as an American I am so absolutely terrified for the future of this country."