{"id":12845131,"date":"2025-10-06T19:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philstockworld.com\/?p=12845131"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:07:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:07:20","slug":"how-rfk-jr-s-misguided-science-on-mrna-vaccines-is-shaping-policy-%e2%88%92-a-vaccine-expert-examines-the-false-claims-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philstockworld.com\/2025\/10\/06\/how-rfk-jr-s-misguided-science-on-mrna-vaccines-is-shaping-policy-%e2%88%92-a-vaccine-expert-examines-the-false-claims-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How RFK Jr.\u2019s misguided science on mRNA vaccines is shaping policy \u2212 a vaccine expert examines the false\u00a0claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

How RFK Jr.\u2019s misguided science on mRNA vaccines is shaping policy \u2212 a vaccine expert examines the false\u00a0claims<\/h2>\n
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RFK Jr. canceled $500 million of funding for research on mRNA vaccine technology. Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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By Deborah Fuller<\/a>, University of Washington<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
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At a Sept. 4, 2025, hearing before the Senate Finance Committee<\/a>, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced heated questions from numerous senators<\/a> about his vaccine policies, including his stance on COVID-19 vaccines and mRNA vaccine technology generally.<\/p>\n

Although Kennedy agreed that Operation Warp Speed, President Donald Trump\u2019s signature initiative to produce COVID-19 vaccines in nine months, was a tremendous achievement, he also maintained that COVID-19 vaccines cause widespread and serious harm, including death, particularly in young people \u2013 a claim for which there is no evidence.<\/p>\n

Some especially pointed questions came from Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who provided the final vote needed for Kennedy\u2019s confirmation<\/a> in February 2025 after Kennedy promised him that he would not change the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s process for recommending vaccines. Cassidy pointed out that with the limitations and confusion<\/a> caused by the CDC\u2019s new rules around COVID-19 vaccines<\/a>, \u201cI would say effectively we are denying people vaccines.\u201d To which Kennedy replied, \u201cWell, you\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Kennedy stood by his decision to cut US$500 million in HHS funding<\/a> for 22 research contracts on mRNA vaccine technology. HHS has said it will instead pour these funds into research on a traditional approach to designing vaccines that was first used more than 200 years ago<\/a>. With such vaccines, called whole-virus vaccines<\/a>, a person\u2019s immune system is presented with the whole virus<\/a>, often in weakened or inactivated form. This switcheroo has puzzled many scientists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A few days before the hearing, on Sept. 1, Trump demanded that pharmaceutical companies prove that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines work<\/a>, saying that the CDC was \u201cbeing ripped apart over this question.\u201d It was his first public acknowledgment of the chaos roiling the CDC amid the firing of its director, Susan Monarez<\/a>, and subsequent resignations of four high-level agency officials.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, public health experts<\/a> and HHS staffers<\/a> are calling for Kennedy to be fired, and several senators at the hearing echoed that call.<\/p>\n

As a vaccinologist<\/a> who has studied and developed vaccines<\/a> for over 35 years, I see that the science behind mRNA vaccine technology is being widely misstated. This incorrect information is shaping long-term health policy in the U.S. \u2013 which makes it urgent to correct the record.<\/p>\n

Are mRNA vaccines less safe than whole-virus vaccines?<\/h2>\n

HHS defended its cancellation of mRNA vaccine research based, in part, on a nonpeer-reviewed compilation of selected publications called the COVID-19 mRNA \u201cvaccine\u201d harms research collection<\/a>. This document lists about 750 articles claimed to describe harms caused by mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. However, the vast majority of these articles aren\u2019t about vaccines but about the harms of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And notably absent from it is the huge body of data showing mRNA vaccines actually prevent these harms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Spike proteins on SARS-COV-2 can cause tissue damage \u2013 and although mRNA vaccines produce them in small amounts, they prevent the virus from replicating to produce them in large amounts.<\/span> https:\/\/www.scientificanimations.com\/wiki-images\/<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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For example, the document being used to justify RFK Jr.\u2019s claims about mRNA vaccines highlights 375 studies reporting that the virus\u2019s spike protein alone, which is produced when the virus replicates, can cause excessive inflammation and tissue damage<\/a>. This is true. But the document marshals this evidence to support the claim that mRNA vaccines, which are designed to produce spike proteins, cause the same harm \u2013 which is not accurate.<\/p>\n

While viral replication results in uncontrolled production of a large amounts of the protein, the way it\u2019s produced by the mRNA vaccine is very different. The vaccine produces a small, controlled amount of spike protein inside a few cells<\/a> \u2013 just enough to induce an immune response without causing damage. And by blocking the virus\u2019s replication, it reduces the amount of spike protein in circulation, actually having the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

What about side effects like myocarditis?<\/h2>\n

Early reports flagged a type of heart swelling called myocarditis<\/a> as a rare side effect of the mRNA vaccine, particularly for young men ages 18 to 25 after a booster dose. A 2024 review identified about 20 cases out of 1 million people<\/a> who received the vaccine. However, that same study found that unvaccinated people had an elevenfold higher risk of getting myocarditis after a COVID-19 infection than vaccinated people.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, another 2024 study showed that people who developed myocarditis after vaccination had fewer complications<\/a> than those who developed the condition after getting infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Do mRNA vaccines make the SARS-CoV-2 virus resistant?<\/h2>\n

Another claim from the compilation of supposed mRNA vaccine harms<\/a> that was cited as a reason for cutting funding for mRNA technology is that mRNA vaccines cause mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus<\/a> that make them resistant or less susceptible to the vaccine.<\/p>\n

When a virus replicates in its host, it produces millions of copies of its genetic material. Mutations are copying errors that occur naturally<\/a> during the replication process. These acquired mutations produce new variants, which is why both the COVID-19 mRNA and the whole-virus flu vaccine get updated annually \u2013 to keep up with natural changes in the virus.<\/p>\n

Slowing down viral replication decreases the rate at which a virus can acquire new mutations<\/a>. Since both mRNA and whole-virus vaccines stop or slow the virus from replicating<\/a>, both types of vaccines help reduce the emergence of resistant viruses.<\/p>\n

Viruses can mutate to escape from antibodies, but the mRNA vaccines are not causing the emergence of more virulent strains<\/a>, likely for at least two reasons. First, mRNA vaccines induce immune responses that can attack the virus at multiple spots, so it would have to come up with many mutations at once to escape the vaccine\u2019s defenses. Second, even if the virus could acquire all these mutations, they would likely weaken it<\/a>, making it unable to cause or even transmit disease.<\/p>\n

mRNA vaccines versus new SARS-CoV-2 variants<\/h2>\n

Kennedy, in announcing cuts to mRNA vaccine research<\/a> on Aug. 5, 2025, claimed that mRNA vaccines don\u2019t work against respiratory viruses and that HHS was moving toward \u201csafer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both whole-virus vaccines and mRNA vaccines protected against COVID-19 and prevented hospitalization and death<\/a> for millions of people worldwide between 2020 and 2024, but there\u2019s clear evidence that the mRNA-based vaccines<\/a> provided significantly better protection<\/a> than whole-virus vaccines. And for COVID-19, mRNA vaccines are more effective against new variants<\/a>, which emerge as viruses mutate, than whole-virus vaccines.<\/p>\n