RFK Jr.'s Misguided War on mRNA

“Covid vaccine mandates and a lack of transparency by public-health experts produced many unintended effects -- or what scientists call "off target" responses. One is a political turn against mRNA technology that could damage U.S. innovation and pandemic preparedness.

 

The Health and Human Services Department recently scrapped 22 mRNA-related vaccine investments. "These vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu," Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. "We're shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate."

 

Let's dissect these assertions. Start with his claim that mRNA vaccines fail to protect against upper respiratory infections. It's true that the Biden crowd oversold the ability of the Covid vaccines to provide long-lasting protection against infection.

 

But real-world evidence showed they provide strong and relatively durable protection against severe illness.

 

The failure to provide long-lasting protection against infections wasn't because mRNA technology is ineffective. No vaccine platform provided durable protection against infection. That's because Covid replicates rapidly in the upper respiratory tract, which makes it difficult for vaccines to prevent infections regardless of whether the virus mutates.

 

Vaccines against measles, smallpox and mumps provide life-long protection because those viruses have long incubation periods. The immune system, once trained by the vaccines, has time to gear up against invading pathogens. Not so for Covid, flu and RSV.

 

Mr. Kennedy wants to revert to using decades-old inactivated whole-virus vaccines, which China used during the pandemic. But China's vaccines were less effective than the mRNA shots. One notable benefit of mRNA is that vaccines can be manufactured rapidly in the event of a pandemic. They can also be quickly updated if a virus mutates.

 

As for mRNA safety, Mr. Kennedy links to a compendium of studies that raise theoretical concerns about potential adverse effects. But those studies don't find broad-ranging hazards in humans. One of the studies notes that trace amounts of mRNA has been found in breast milk, but it was in an inactive form that was unlikely to impact babies.

 

Another cited study says there could be "potential off-target effects" if mRNA is "mistranslated" by cells. But it also notes no such adverse outcomes have been found in humans. Trial lawyers love to cite hypothetical harms from vaccines and drugs based on test-tube studies when they can't marshal real-world evidence. That's what Mr. Kennedy is doing.

 

This isn't to deny that the vaccines may have rare side effects like myocarditis in young men. Yale researchers are investigating rare neurologic effects -- and not only in those who received the mRNA shots -- that resemble long Covid.

 

It may be worth the National Institutes of Health funding such research, which could produce insights and treatments.

 

NIH director Jay Bhattacharya acknowledged that concerns about mRNA safety are overbaked. He wrote in the Washington Post last week that he didn't believe mRNA shots have caused mass harm but that the government is moving away from them because the technology "has failed to earn the public's trust." Don't blame the vaccines for that.

 

Dr. Bhattacharya rightly faulted the Biden team for spreading mistrust with its social-media censorship, vaccine mandates, and statements that "misinformed the American public that the vaccine would protect them from contracting and spreading covid." How does Mr. Kennedy saying mRNA vaccines are unsafe and ineffective restore trust?

 

Blackballing mRNA will increase skepticism about the technology, which could be used in the future to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and genetic disorders.

 

An early-phase trial this year showed that a personalized mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer induced a strong and durable response that could prevent recurrence.

 

Mr. Kennedy last week said mRNA cancer vaccines "may be very effective." But what if some patients opt against such treatments owing to safety fears that he and his acolytes have fanned? mRNA technology has enormous potential, but the Trump team is throwing out the President's Operation Warp Speed baby with the Biden bath water.

 

The nixed HHS contracts were aimed at improving mRNA to better prepare for future pandemics. Experimental projects include needle-free skin patches and self-amplifying mRNA shots, which might be manufactured and administered more rapidly than the Covid vaccines were. China is pouring money into mRNA vaccines. Why is the Trump team unilaterally disarming?” [1]

 

1. RFK Jr.'s Misguided War on mRNA. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Aug 2025: A14.