The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in late May canceled $766 million awarded to Moderna through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a potential mRNA vaccine for bird flu. 

This came soon after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced COVID-19 mRNA vaccines would no longer be recommended for children and pregnant women, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kept the shot on its schedule of childhood vaccinations. 

The vaccines marked a breakthrough in medical technology, drastically reducing the timeline for development of targeted vaccines and even showing promise in cancer research. Trump called mRNA the “gold standard” when he rolled out the first COVID-19 vaccines.  

In remarks in December 2020, the same month the first COVID-19 vaccines were deployed, Trump praised Operation Warp Speed’s ability to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at a “breakneck speed,” adding, “the gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months.”  

According to Joseph Varon, president and chief medical officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, the concerns for mRNA vaccine skeptics are the expedited timeline and the conditions in which the COVID-19 vaccine was approved.   

“The biggest concern is that this rushed treatment still remains in use, even under an Emergency Use Authorization in some cases. It needs to be sent back through proper studies and vetting,” Varon told The Hill.  

In a move that could prevent future mRNA vaccines from receiving approval, Kennedy on Tuesday announced he was removing every member of the independent panel advising the CDC on vaccines. 

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he wrote, “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”