‘The public in jeopardy': Experts react to RFK Jr.'s cancellation of vaccine research

Pittsburgh-area science experts are warning that the public’s health could be in jeopardy after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the sudden cancellation of 22 federally funded vaccine projects.

The halted projects focused on next-generation vaccines designed to generate stronger and longer-lasting immune responses.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the termination of over $500 million in funding for vaccines under development with mRNA technology to fight respiratory viruses such as covid-19 and the flu.

“(The decision is) really a huge mistake and a disaster for emergency preparedness,” said Dr. Raymond Pontzer, chair of Allegheny County Medical Society Board of Directors, member of the Allegheny County Immunization Coalition, clinical associate professor of medicine at University of Pittsburgh and recent retiree as chief of Infectious Diseases at UPMC St. Margaret.

Kennedy, who has a history of expressing anti-vaccine views, recently rolled back recommendations regarding covid-19 shots and replaced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said that mRNA technology allows vaccine development to be much faster as it makes it easier to adapt to changes in strains by quickly updating a vaccine.

“We may still get new mRNA vaccines developed, and certainly some pharmaceutical companies are moving forward on their own,” Adalja said. “What RFK Jr. is doing is basically removing this technology as an option for the government to prepare for pandemics, which, I think, is actually removing kind of the most, most potent tool that we have for pandemic preparedness.”

In a video posted on X, Kennedy claimed that vaccines developed with mRNA technology “paradoxically encourages new mutations,” which result in prolonged pandemics.

We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted. BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward… pic.twitter.com/GPKbuU7ywN

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 5, 2025

Pontzer refuted that, saying the United States is pulling funding for a “critical piece of science.”

For Adalja, mRNA was the “signature achievement” of the Trump’s first presidential term.

During the pandemic, Operation Warp Speed was a federal effort that supported multiple covid-19 vaccine candidates made with mRNA, to speed up development, according to a news release from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“Everyone in my field understands that Operation Warp Speed was something that that was a great achievement,” Adalja said. “We’re in a situation where that’s not valued anymore. And I think what it does is, it really makes the U.S. less prepared for any kind of infectious disease emergency.”

Officials with Pittsburgh Infectious Diseases, a medical practice limited to the subspecialty of infectious diseases, and Allegheny Health Network declined to comment.

UPMC did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.

University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research and School of Health also did not return calls and emails for comment.

Kennedy has been “undermining public confidence in vaccines” for decades, Adalja said. “He’s never come across a vaccine that he actually supports.”

Pontzer said he is saddened by the steps backward that medical research is taking.

“It really jeopardizes the future,” he said. “It puts the public in jeopardy.”