, Columnist
The Anti-Vax Culture War on mRNA Just Got Worse
This time the government, by cutting NIH funding for research, is leading the charge.
Undermining public health.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
US health agency leadership and policymakers seem intent on undermining trust in mRNA, the technology that saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and has shown promise in addressing a range of infectious diseases and even cancer.
One troubling sign of the trend came when, according to KFF reporting, National Institutes of Health officials told academic researchers to remove any mention of mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications. The directive dovetails with weak or misleading messaging from public health agencies on the value of vaccines and proposed state legislation that would ban mRNA shots.