HHS Pulls the Plug on mRNA

"Experts" accuse RFK Jr. of rolling out a bioterror welcome mat—or something.

Yesterday, in a much-needed win for MAHA (and people who don’t care for injectable gene editing tech), the Trump administration announced the cancellation of nearly half a billion dollars in federal contracts aimed at developing mRNA vaccines for future hypothetical viral disasters.

You could practically hear the crunchy moms weeping joyfully into their mason jars of homemade elderberry syrup.

“At HHS we have a division called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA,” Robert F. Kennedy explained in his announcement. “BARDA drives some of our most advanced scientific research. Over the past few weeks, BARDA reviewed 22 mRNA vaccine development investments and began canceling them. Let me explain why: As the pandemic showed us, most of these vaccines don’t perform well against viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract. After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at the NIH and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses.”

Experts, who are typically baffled, are now dismayed.

Of course, I could have predicted—even scripted—the liberal meltdowns over anti-vax science and a reckless retreat into the Dark Ages. I was prepared for the tsk-tsking, the name-calling, the angry “menace to public health” tirades. What I didn’t see coming were the media’s attempts to turn the decision to not fund experimental gene therapies into “Bobby Kennedy just gave bioterrorists your address and told them you never lock your back door.”

“I think [defunding mRNA development] endangers the national security of the United States,” healthcare policy analyst and former HHS deputy assistant secretary Chris Meekins told NPR. “It could put the US at a strategic national security disadvantage and would be a significant threat to the national security of the United States.”

Mr. Meekins is clearly very bright, because he found three very slightly different ways of saying the exact same thing.

If you're wondering how we got from “don’t forget your flu shot” to “this is a national security crisis,” you’re not alone. See, worrying about your selfish neighbor who won’t get jabbed so now your jab probably won’t work is so 2022. In 2025, we’re supposed to be panicking over the shadowy terrorist cells out there who are going to unleash the next Fauci-grade frankenvirus any second—because they know we don’t have a shiny new vaccine to fight it! (That’s how pandemics work, right? It’s basically just a digital arms race. First one to hit “unleash spike protein” wins?)

Of course, biosecurity experts aren’t the only ones wringing their hands over Kennedy’s announcement according to NPR; infectious disease specialists are also horrified.

“This may be the most dangerous public health judgment that I've seen in my 50 years in this business,” said Michael Osterholm, head of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It is baseless and we will pay a tremendous price in terms of illnesses and deaths. I'm extremely worried about it.”

Baseless. (Wonder how Osterholm & Co. explain the mystery event in 2021 that sent vaccine related death numbers skyrocketing?)

Yes, the government is shifting funds away from mRNA vaccine development, and some folks are acting like we just handed North Korea the keys to the gain-of-function gift shop.

“It absolutely leaves the country vulnerable,” added Jennifer Nuzzo, who heads Brown University’s Pandemic Center, because of course that’s a thing now.

Just five short years ago, before Covid came crashing into town, the word pandemic was one of those vaguely familiar old-timey terms—like davenport or chesterfield or ‘a nice cod liver oil tonic from the apothecary’—you just didn’t come across much. Sure, we had that brief swine flu scare in 2009 (complete with early warnings that millions could die globally!) before it fizzled out with all the menace of a mildly disappointing flu season. Other than that, “pandemic” lived in the same dusty mental file with the grainy black and white photos of pop-up hospitals we saw when we learned about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in high school.

An actual headline/article that ran in The Guardian in 2009.

These days, the fearmongers remind us on a daily basis that we might be one ferret freak-off away from a catastrophic mass casualty event. And apparently, not funding another 22 mRNA contracts means that when the next pandemic hits—which will definitely be soon, they promise—we’ll be “caught flat-footed.”

In case you missed the implication: They’re still trying to make the argument that mRNA’s main selling feature is that it is so “nimble”—their word, not mine—that it can be developed in time to swiftly respond to novel pathogenic threats. (Will it vaporize your immune system and carve up your heart like it owes Moderna money? Sure! But did you see how quickly we whipped it up?)

“Speed is the name of the game,” insisted former BARDA chief Rick Bright, who apparently slept through the part of Covid where every mRNA booster was formulated for the last variant just as a new one showed up wearing a mustache and a fake name.

And of course, no self-respecting media outlet would dream of covering a controversial Kennedy move without a quote from the abominable “vaccine scientist” Peter Hotez. “The deleterious impact is not only in the contracts that they're canceling but they're trying to make the case to the public that mRNA technology doesn't work very well and it's unsafe,” Hotez said. “And that's absolutely untrue."

I made this. You’re welcome.

On Reddit, narrative-drugged users have dubbed mRNA “the antivaxxers' new boogeyman” and call folks like me—who wouldn’t willingly line up for a jab if it came with a free Range Rover and eternal salvation—“f*cking morons who literally don’t know what’s good for them.” It’s no wonder half the country treats mRNA like it’s holy water—every mainstream outlet recycles the same three “experts” regurgitating identical talking points like they’re auditioning for a revival of 1984: The Musical. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,” the Nazi slogan goes, “people will eventually come to believe it.”

Case in point: this gem from the WaPo:

“Kennedy’s resistance against mRNA vaccines is without evidence. In fact, the technology—which instructs the body’s cells to produce a harmless bit of virus that is then used to train the immune system, as opposed to using weakened or dead versions of a virus—delivered arguably the most important achievement of President Donald Trump’s first term: the production of effective vaccines against the novel coronavirus within the span of a few months.”

At the risk of sounding disrespectful, are the journalists penning these pieces high? In what universe (or psychedelic fugue state) would you call a toxic cocktail that doesn’t prevent infection or transmission of a disease and carries the risk of heart attack, paralysis, and death an effective vaccine? It’s so absurd, you have to wonder if we’re even watching the same movie.

You: Isn’t Titanic just the most beautiful and tragic love story ever told?
Them: Love story? I thought Titanic was a documentary promoting iceberg awareness!

To recap, HHS made the clearly unforgivable move of listening to public skepticism, reviewing actual performance data, and choosing to invest in broader vaccine approaches instead of betting the entire pandemic farm on a fancy new delivery system that hasn’t lived up to the hype—to put it mildly. And yet Team Pharma still wants us to believe that the fate of the free world hinges on the development and mass adoption of a vaccine platform its own developers keep promising will work “better next time.”

Where’s the lie though?

Maybe they’re planning the next lab leak as I type. Perhaps we’ll (again) react with the elegance of a drunk dude trying to assemble IKEA furniture in the middle of a house fire. Maybe AI will destroy the planet before they even get the lid off the jar. Or maybe, just maybe, the real threat to public health is pretending the last “solution” worked flawlessly and calling anyone who noticed a terrorist.

I’m pretty sure I know how most JS readers will vote, but ‘splain your reasoning anyway in the comments. ;)

It’s not just a book; it’s a time capsule of one of the nuttiest periods in history. Order your copy today and I’ll sign it and everything.