US canceled vaccine contracts based on false claims, researchers say

The US government used false claims to justify the termination of 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines credited with saving millions of lives during the Covid pandemic, researchers said on Friday (8).

Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday the cancellation of the contracts, which totaled about $500 million (R$2.7 billion), a decision described as a “severe blow” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, disinformation watchdog NewsGuard identified a series of falsehoods that Kennedy promoted in justifying the cuts.

Kennedy said mRNA vaccines are responsible for “new mutations” of the virus, thus creating new variants that can prolong pandemics.

"He's wrong (...). No vaccine, including mRNA, stimulates new mutations," Stephen Evans, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the London-based Science Media Centre.

Kennedy also stated that mRNA vaccines “do not effectively protect against upper respiratory infections like Covid” and that mRNA technology “poses more risks than benefits.”

But Evans stressed that vaccines are “extremely effective against Covid, preventing deaths, hospitalizations and clinical or subclinical infections.”

“No vaccine has a zero incidence of side effects (…) but the benefits far outweigh the risks,” Charles Bangham, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told the Science Media Centre.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) top immunization official on Thursday lamented the United States' decision.

"The mRNA vaccine is a very important technology that has been extremely useful to us in combating Covid," said Joachim Hombach, highlighting that this type of vaccine "can adapt very quickly."

Unlike traditional vaccines, which use weakened or inactivated forms of the target virus or bacteria, mRNA vaccines introduce genetic instructions into host cells, stimulating them to produce a harmless decoy pathogen and enabling the immune system to fight the real pathogen.

American experts have warned that funding cuts threaten global public health.

Kennedy has been spreading misinformation about vaccines for two decades, and since taking office in February, he has led a major review of US health policy.

For example, he dismissed an advisory panel of vaccine experts, replacing them with people he himself appointed. At their first meeting, the new group voted to ban a historically safe vaccine preservative that has been criticized by some in the anti-vaccine movement.

He also ordered a new, thorough study into the now-discredited link between vaccines and autism.

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