The Trump administration has delivered its latest blow to vaccines, canceling a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu.

The decision also forfeited the U.S. government’s right to purchase doses ahead of a pandemic, and canceled an agreement set up by the Biden administration in January to prepare the nation for a potential bird flu pandemic. The Moderna contract built on a previous government investment of $175 million last year.

The move was not entirely unexpected. The Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this year that it was reviewing the contract. And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly questioned the safety of mRNA technology, which is used in Moderna’s Covid vaccine.

First used for the Covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, mRNA shots instruct the body to produce a fragment of the virus, which then sets off the body’s immune response.

Andrew Nixon, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said: “After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable.”

For several years, a type of avian flu known as H5N1 has circulated around the world, killing wild birds and domestic flocks, and spreading to a range of other species including bears and sea mammals.

It arrived in the United States in 2022, and has resulted in the culling of more than 173 million birds, frequently devastating commercial poultry flocks.

Last year, bird flu also spread to dairy cattle. It has since struck more than 1,000 herds in 17 states and sickened 70 people, most of them dairy or cattle workers. In January, Louisiana reported the death of an older adult who had interacted with sick backyard birds, the first such fatality in the United States.

So far, the virus does not seem to spread easily among people. But scientists have long worried about a bird flu pandemic because flu viruses can rapidly mutate and acquire new abilities.

The national stockpile holds a few million doses of an existing H5N1 vaccine to protect humans. But it is unclear whether the shots would continue to protect Americans if the virus were to change significantly. The government has three other avian flu contracts, according to the health department.

Many scientists regard mRNA vaccines, which can be quickly altered to match the newest versions of virus, as the best option for protecting Americans in a fast-moving outbreak.

“When the next flu pandemic occurs, there is not going to be enough vaccine for everyone who wants it unless we invest to broaden the types of flu vaccines being made and the number of companies that make them,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.

“We shouldn’t let politically motivated attempts to unfairly brand mRNA vaccines as dangerous stand in the way of ensuring everyone who wants a pandemic vaccine can get one,” she said.

Moderna’s contract covered several types of flu viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic. In response to the government’s decision, Moderna said it would explore alternatives for developing its vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy’s ideas for containing bird flu are unorthodox. He has suggested that instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers should let the virus run through the flocks. Then, he has said, farmers should identify birds that survive the illness and study them to identify the source of their immunity. Many scientists assert that would be inhumane and dangerous.

Last week, Mr. Kennedy urged the Canadian authorities not to kill 400 ostriches that had been exposed to H5N1, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid, offered to relocate the birds to his ranch in Florida.

Mr. Kennedy has long waged a campaign against some vaccines, particularly those based on mRNA. He has incorrectly and repeatedly said that the Covid vaccines using mRNA were the “deadliest” vaccines ever made.

Experts said his views were out of step with the science.

“Pandemic preparedness is about being proactive, fast and adaptable — the mRNA vaccine platform is all of that,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

“The rationale given is likely fabricated and more of a function of R.F.K. Jr.’s assault on vaccines, the value of which he evades,” he added. “Canceling this contract makes the world less safe.”

Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health, with a focus on infectious diseases, pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.

The post U.S. Cancels Contract With Moderna to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine appeared first on New York Times.

The federal government announced Wednesday that it is cancelling a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics, including the bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S., citing concerns about the safety of the mRNA technology being used.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it is terminating a $766 million contract with the vaccine company Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect people against flu strains with pandemic potential, including the H5N1 bird flu virus that's been raising fears.

"After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable," HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in a statement.

"This is not simply about efficacy — it's about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public," Nixon said.

He added that "the move signals a shift in federal vaccine funding priorities toward platforms with better-established safety profiles and transparent data practices. HHS remains committed to advancing pandemic preparedness through technologies that are evidence-based, ethically grounded, and publicly accountable." The official did not provide any additional details.

Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center, said the decision was "disappointing, but unsurprising given the politically-motivated, evidence-free rhetoric that tries to paint mRNA vaccines as being dangerous."

"While there are other means of making flu vaccines in a pandemic, they are slower and some rely on eggs, which may be in short supply," Nuzzo added in an email. "What we learned clearly during the last influenza pandemic is there are only a few companies in the world that make flu vaccines, which means in a pandemic there won't be enough to go around. If the U.S. wants to make sure it can get enough vaccines for every American who wants them during a pandemic, it should invest in multiple types of vaccines instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket."

The cancellation comes even though Moderna says a study involving 300 healthy adults had produced "positive interim" results and the company "had previously expected to advance the program to late-stage development."

"While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis of the Phase 1/2 study of our H5 avian flu vaccine and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats."

The administration's move drew sharp criticism from outside experts.

"This decision puts the lives and health of the American people at risk," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown School of Public Health, who served as President Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator.

"Bird Flu is a well known threat and the virus has continued to evolve. If the virus develops the ability to spread from person to person, we could see a large number of people get sick and die from this infection," Jha said. "The program to develop the next generation of vaccines was essential to protecting Americans. The attack by the Administration on the mRNA vaccine platform is absurd."

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota agreed.

"This decision will make our country far less prepared to respond to the next influenza pandemic," he said in an email. "This is a dangerous course to follow."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H5N1 flu virus has spread to 41 dairy herds, and 24 poultry farms and culling operations, and caused 70 human cases. While the virus has had a high mortality rate in other countries, so far H5N1 has only caused one death in the U.S. and has not shown any signs of spreading easily from one person to another. But infectious disease experts are concerned that the more the virus spreads, the greater the chance it could mutate into a form that would spread from person to person, which would increase the risk of a pandemic.

Five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 82 days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, dozens of people gathered in a Washington D.C. townhouse to celebrate Jay Bhattacharya, who had recently been confirmed as director of the National Institutes of Health, the world’s top agency for biomedical research. Most of the guests were not scientists or beltway insiders, but citizen-activists like Kelley Krohnert, a Georgia photographer and mother who gained an online following during the pandemic for her sharp criticism of public health policy. In a picture posted on Facebook, she stands next to Bhattacharya, who is dressed in a plaid shirt and gray blazer, smiling while holding what looks like a tall glass of ice water.

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