Anti-vax culture war on mRNA just got worse

US health agency leadership and poli- cymakers 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.

- Lisa Jarvis

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. All of this is sending public health in the wrong direction, whether because people eschew today’s COVID vaccine or refuse to take whatever mRNA shots are developed to address a future pandemic — if those vaccines are developed at all. The current environment puts at risk momentum for critical prevention and treatments.