US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is cancelling $500 million in mRNA vaccine research, citing false claims about such vaccines’ safety and effectiveness. The funding will be cut from 22 grants awarded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B.

“We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” noted Kennedy’s press release, claiming that mRNA vaccines do not protect against upper respiratory tract infections and citing as evidence a collection of 375 studies compiled by anti-vaxxers. Yet most of the studies are not about vaccination; rather, they describe the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein’s harmful effects during infection. The compilers “grabbed papers using any mention of spike protein, whether from infection or vaccination, and presented them as evidence against vaccines," noted Stanford University’s Jake Scott in his analysis of the studies. And the large-scale studies of COVID-19 vaccine safety are missing from the collection.

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