Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has halted nearly half a billion dollars in funding for mRNA-based respiratory vaccines—and thereby ended America’s leadership research into one of modern medicine’s most promising frontiers.
That verdict runs counter to the evidence. I’ve spent more than three decades advancing mRNA research. Testing proves it both safe and transformative in the way we fight disease. My work began in the days of basic RNA biology, and it has reached to seeing
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has halted nearly half a billion dollars in funding for mRNA-based respiratory vaccines—and thereby ended America’s leadership research into one of modern medicine’s most promising frontiers.
That verdict runs counter to the evidence. I’ve spent more than three decades advancing mRNA research. Testing proves it both safe and transformative in the way we fight disease. My work began in the days of basic RNA biology, and it has reached to seeing my graduate student help design the Moderna Covid vaccine. I’ve watched these discoveries save millions of lives worldwide. Mr. Kennedy’s decision must be reversed.
The skepticism many Americans have toward mRNA vaccines is easy to understand. The Covid vaccine rollout came with overconfident and misleading assurances that the shots were entirely without risk and that they would prevent infection and transmission. Those claims, delivered with certainty that wasn’t backed up by science, proved false.
Worse, public-health authorities and employers coupled those messages with sweeping mandates: Take an experimental vaccine or lose your job, your education and access to public spaces. Rather than seeking informed consent, public leaders deployed misinformation and coercive tactics. Being told one thing, then living through another, left a sense of betrayal that damaged the public’s trust in health authorities.
Acknowledging those errors is mandatory for restoring our credibility. We need to hold two truths at once: The benefits of the Covid vaccine were oversold and the uncertainties understated—and yet, when the data came in, the mRNA vaccines still proved effective at reducing severe illness and death.
Here, the evidence is clear. In large, randomized clinical trials reviewed by the FDA, the first mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna reduced the risk of symptomatic Covid by about 95%. Real-world data from later surges, including the Delta and Omicron waves, confirmed that vaccinated people were far less likely to be hospitalized or die of the virus.
The most-discussed adverse event, myocarditis in young men, was real but extremely rare. In the highest-risk group, males age 12 to 17 after a second dose, the risk was roughly 0.006% to 0.011%, about the same as lifetime odds of being struck by lightning. The vaccines were highly effective, and the benefits outweighed the risks by orders of magnitude.
That doesn’t diminish the experience of anyone who suffered a complication, but it matters when setting national policy. The mRNA vaccines are among the most promising tools in modern medicine. They offer unmatched speed and adaptability, allowing scientists to design and produce targeted vaccines in weeks instead of years.
Their potential extends far beyond respiratory diseases. Researchers are now using mRNA to tackle rare genetic disorders, autoimmune diseases, heart disease and cancers. Early trials of customized mRNA vaccines for pancreatic cancer have shown success rates of 50%, echoing the mid-20th-century leukemia breakthroughs that lifted five-year survival from just 10% to 94%. That leap from near-certain death to near-certain survival shows what sustained investment in medical research can achieve.
For more than six decades, the U.S. has led the world in biomedical innovation, thanks in large part to sustained federal investment in basic research. That lead is now at risk, as global rivals are moving aggressively to surpass us. Chinese researchers, along with rapidly advancing biotech hubs in other countries, are shortening clinical trial approvals, boosting investment, and attracting record levels of global capital. If we step back, they will seize this field—forcing the U.S. to depend on foreign-made medicines. Once lost, American leadership may never return.
American leadership need not, and should not, embrace mRNA technology uncritically. But the government has a responsibility to drive safe, groundbreaking innovation forward. As a scientist whose education was funded by National Institutes of Health grants, I see this as a social contract with the American people. With strong federal backing and a commitment to rapid, responsible progress, mRNA vaccines can realize their full potential.
Mr. Coller is a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University, founder of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines and a co-founder of Tevard Biosciences.
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