RFK Jr. Cancels $500 Million in Federal mRNA Vaccine Work, Ending 22 Projects

On August 5, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the termination of roughly $500 million in mRNA vaccine development funded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, covering 22 projects. Kennedy said the data show mRNA vaccines "fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu." A small number of late-stage contracts, including work with Arcturus and Amplitude, were allowed to run to completion; no new mRNA projects would be funded.

BARDA exists to keep vaccine platforms ready before an outbreak rather than after one, and mRNA was the platform that produced COVID-19 vaccines at unprecedented speed in 2020. Withdrawing federal support narrows the range of technologies the government can call on in a future pandemic and shifts that capacity toward other countries and the private market. The decision was made by the department head rather than through the peer-review processes that normally govern which biomedical platforms receive federal investment.

Vaccine researchers and former officials disputed Kennedy's scientific rationale. Rick Bright, a former BARDA director, said the decision would have consequences "measured in lost lives, when a rapid vaccine response is needed." The cancellations were not reversed.