August 6, 2025
AVAC condemns a series of actions taken by the U.S. presidential administration to dismantle U.S. leadership in research, development and delivery of lifesaving vaccines. The latest move announced yesterday to defund grants issued by the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) for research and development of the mRNA vaccine platform is part of a broader pattern to systematically decimate investments in vaccine development programs and delivery systems and continue to sow ideologically driven vaccine misinformation. Without U.S. government leadership, the country and the world will remain woefully unprepared for ongoing and emerging pandemic threats.
“We are disappointed and alarmed to see the government continue an onslaught against vaccine science and confidence,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC. “Actions to take apart the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), to cancel grants to the Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVDs), to cease contributions to Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and now to cancel BARDA support for mRNA vaccines are a red alert all around the world, signaling the U.S. retreat from advancing vaccine development and delivery.
This week’s action to unilaterally cancel $500M in BARDA grants for mRNA vaccine R&D come after the U.S. government—through Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—implemented several moves to weaken vaccine science and programming within the U.S. government:
- May 30: NIH notified the leaders of the Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVDs) that their funding would not be renewed, putting in doubt the realization of HIV vaccine portfolio and decades of historical investment.
- June 8: HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr removed COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women and then dismissed 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) and installed noted vaccine skeptics in their place.
- June 25: In a video statement, RFK Jr. stuns the Gavi replenishment conference by withdrawing U.S. support for the multilateral agency, critically undermining its ability to deliver vaccines to vulnerable populations and communities around the world.
- July 28: Following the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in Braidwood vs. Becerra, which affirmed the mandated insurance coverage of preventative services based on recommendations made by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) as well as the ability of the HHS Secretary to remove and shape HHS committees at will, RFK Jr. cancelled the next meeting of the Task Force and signaled his intention to disband its membership.
Cancellation of research grants at the CHAVD and BARDA continue a dangerous pattern of impoundment tactics by the administration to bypass Congressional authority to appropriate funding. Even with the potential restoration of funding, damage to the vaccine research infrastructure has already been done.
“We cannot just ‘turn the tap’ of funding back on,” warned Stacey Hannah, AVAC’s Director of Research Engagement. “When the administration stops research funding abruptly, it rewinds scientific progress. It will take time and even more resources to get these studies back online—squandering the potential of future breakthroughs that are based on established, gold-standard science.”
Additionally, by destabilizing evidence-based policymaking and scientifically rigorous recommendations made possible through ACIP and USPSTF, the administration intensifies public doubt and mistrust in vaccines as important public health tools. Vaccine misinformation undermines delivery of the annual flu shot, COVID-19 boosters, and vaccines against measles, hep B, HPV, and mpox, amongst other vaccine preventable diseases.
“These actions dangerously sow vaccine disinformation and mistrust, which has proliferated since the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Alison Footman, Senior Program Manager for STIs at AVAC. “Dangerous ideology results in dangerous policymaking, putting many lives at stake and complicating efforts to both discover and implement clinical and cost-effective interventions to make America and the world healthier, safer, and more prosperous.”
AVAC calls upon Congress to re-assert its power of the purse and its long-standing, bipartisan support for vaccine R&D and vaccination programs, to counteract efforts by the current administration, and to sustain the vaccine enterprise before it is too late.