Former officials say Trump hits U.S. biosecurity once again as mRNA contracts cut

Former health security officials say the Trump administration canceled a $766 million contract to develop an mRNA vaccine against potential influenza viruses, the latest blow from the Department of Defense. They warn that the United States may be at the mercy of other countries in the next pandemic.

“The administration's actions are covering up our deterrent to biological threats,” said Beth Cameron, senior adviser at Brown University's Pandemic Center and former director of the White House National Security Council. “Signals of canceling this investment indicate that we are changing our posture about pandemic preparations, which is not good for the American people.”

Researchers estimate that global flu homeless people died in the last century.

In an effort to anticipate the next big administration, the U.S. government began to strengthen its pandemic flu defense capabilities during the United States during the George W. Bush administration. These strategies were designed by the Security Council and the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as other agencies. The plan relies on the rapid launch of vaccines amid the pandemic. The rapid integration will depend on domestic production of vaccines, ensuring their safety, and arming them nationwide through the public health system.

Health security experts say the Trump administration is undermining each of these steps as it has allowed health agencies to cut research and health budgets, as well as issues that confuse policy changes.

At least half of the Council’s staff have been fired or left since President Donald Trump took office, and Barda’s future is vague. Peter Marks, the top U.S. vaccine consultant, resigned under pressure in March on the grounds of “an unprecedented attack on scientific truth.”

Recently, Trump's funding drawback for mRNA vaccine development has put Americans on a more stable ground in the next pandemic. “When demand hits and we are not ready, no other country comes to rescue us, we will suffer a huge pain,” said Rick Bright, an immunologist and former director of Barda.

Countries that produce their own vaccines amid the Covid-19-19 pandemic have to shoot first. While the United States is home to Hyundai and Pfizer, it launched a second dose of mRNA vaccine in 2021, thousands of people died and waited for them in countries that did not produce them.

The most relevant pandemic threat today is the bird flu virus H5N1. Last year, researchers around the world were shocked when it began to spread among American cattle. Cattle are closer to humans than birds, suggesting that the virus has evolved to thrive in our own cells.

With hundreds and dozens of people infected in the United States, the Biden administration has used mRNA technology to fund Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine. As part of the agreement, the U.S. government stipulates that it can purchase doses before the pandemic. No longer standing.

Researchers can do bird flu vaccines in other ways, but mRNA vaccines are developed faster because they do not rely on picky biological processes, such as the growth elements of vaccines in eggs or cells that stay viable in a lab tank.

Time matters because the flu virus keeps mutating, and when the vaccine matches any variant, the vaccine works better.

Bright said a vaccine in an egg or cell could take 10 months to perform the genetic sequence after the variant's genetic sequence. Relying on eggs poses additional risks in the bird flu, as the pandemic could wipe out billions of chickens and collapse the egg supply.

Dependencies on inactivated influenza viruses are more risky for researchers and time-consuming methods. The Trump administration still invested $500 million in this approach, which was largely abandoned after causing epilepsy in children in the 1980s.

“This return of politicization is confusing,” Bright said.

If the virus evolves to spread between people, but no one tests at the beginning, bird epidemics can quietly start in the United States. Indeed, the center of the disease control and prevention dashboard shows that only 10 farm workers have been tested for bird flu since March. Due to their close contact with cattle and poultry, farm workers are at the highest risk of infection.

Like many diseases, only a small percentage of people with avian flu can get seriously ill. Therefore, the first sign of the widespread virus may be a surge in hospital cases.

“We need to get the vaccine right away,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

The U.S. government can expand production of existing bird flu vaccines in eggs or cells. However, these vaccines target older H5N1 strains, and their efficacy on viral circulation is not yet known.

In addition to months of developing updated versions in eggs or cells, Rasmussen also questioned the government's ability to quickly test and license updates, with one-quarter of HHS employees disappearing. If the Senate approves Trump’s proposed budget, the agency will face approximately $32 billion in cuts.

Additionally, the Trump administration’s cuts on biomedical research and its cuts to the money granted indirect costs could undermine academic hospitals, preventing them from conducting large clinical trials. It cuts the CDC and cuts public health funding to states, meaning fewer health officials in emergencies.

“You can't just reopen it all,” Rasmussen said. “The longer it takes to respond, the more people die.”

The researchers believe other countries will produce avian flu vaccines first. “The United States may be on the receiving end like India, and everyone – the rich are late for the vaccine.”

He is a board member of the World Health Organization initiative, aiming to increase access to mRNA vaccines in the next pandemic. Members of the program, Sinergium Biotech, Argentina, are testing mRNA vaccines for bird flu. If effective, Sinergium will share the intellectual property behind the vaccine with about a dozen other groups in the program from middle-income countries so that they can be produced.

Norway-based international partnerships’ pandemic preparedness alliance is funding research teams that develop rapid response vaccine technologies, including mRNA, including South Korea, Singapore and France. CEPI is committed to the best efforts to prepare for the bird flu pandemic. This year, the Indian government issued a grant application to develop mRNA vaccines for bird flu, warning that it “posed serious public health risks.”

Pharmaceutical companies are also investing in mRNA vaccines for bird flu. However, Prabhala said private capital is not enough to carry out early vaccines through clinical trials and mass manufacturing. That's because there was no market for bird flu vaccines until the pandemic.

Limited supply means the United States will have to wait in line for mRNA vaccines produced abroad. States and cities may compete with each other for deals with external governments and corporations, as they did for medical devices when the common pandemic peaked.

“I'm worried we'll see the Hunger Games we'll see again in 2020,” Cameron said.

“We concluded that the ongoing investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine is not scientifically or ethically reasonable,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in an email response to the inquiry. He added: “The decision reflects a widespread focus on the use of mRNA platforms, especially in light of the increasing evidence of adverse events related to the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine.”

Nixon did not cite analysis published in scientific journals to support this claim.

Among dozens of published studies, researchers have found that mRNA vaccines against Covid are safe. For example, a placebo-controlled trial of more than 30,000 people in the United States found that the adverse effects of modern vaccines were rare and short-lived, while 30 participants in the placebo group suffered severe COVID cases, with one death.

Recently, a study showed that three out of nearly 20,000 people receiving the modern vaccine and booster were associated with the vaccine, which were resolved within a few months. On the other hand, during the study, Covid killed four people.

As for concerns about heart problems, myocarditis is a study of 2.5 million people taking at least one dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, and found that there are about 2 cases per 100,000 people. COVID causes 10 to 105 cases of myocarditis per 100,000 cases.

Nevertheless, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there was no evidence that the 1918 flu pandemic “came from vaccine research.”

Political distrust in vaccines has grown. Republicans say more, they believe Kennedy provides reliable information about the vaccine in a recent KFF poll compared to local health departments or CDCs: 73% to half.

“If bird flu becomes a pandemic in the next few years, we're going to be screwed up on multiple levels,” Rasmussen said. ”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth news on health issues and is one of KFF’s core operational programs, an independent source of health policy research, polls and journalism. Learn more about KFF. This article first appeared on KFF Health News and was republished under the Creative Sharing License.