Deonandan: Cancelling funding for mRNA vaccine is both risky and foolish

A Moderna COVID-19 vaccine fills a syringe. Photo by Joe Raedle /Getty ImagesArticle content

With Donald Trump’s second administration, disruptive news seems to arise on a daily basis. Most concerning for clinicians and health scientists in Canada and around the world was Trump’s appointment of anti-vaccination zealot Robert Kennedy Jr. to the enormously influential position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s ideological dismantling of the U.S.’s vaunted health research apparatus has been at speeds surprising even to his most ardent critics.

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But his recent decision to cancel a nearly $600-million contract with vaccine manufacturer Moderna might be among his most shortsighted and destructive moves, with ripple effects globally.

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The contract with the mRNA pioneer, signed under the Joe Biden administration, was meant to fund the development, testing and licensing of vaccines targeting particular flu strains, including the strain responsible for the dreaded avian flu, H5N1. Many scientists fear that H5N1 could become the next world-stopping infectious disease pandemic.

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The main reason cited for the cancellation was concern for the safety and testing of mRNA vaccine technology. But the company’s mRNA COVID vaccines are among the most tested and scrutinized medical products in human history. More than 13 billion doses have been given globally, with 650 million given in the U.S. alone, demonstrating a remarkably safe profile. Despite constant surveillance and endless accusations from antivaxxers, no U.S. deaths have been shown to have been causally linked to an mRNA vaccine.

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The withdrawal of the U.S. from efforts to produce an mRNA vaccine against H5N1 is indeed troubling. When it infects humans, H5N1 kills about 50 per cent of the time. Canada’s only known domestically acquired human case of H5N1 to-date was discovered in November.

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Worrying increase in animal cases of H5N1

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The current outbreak among dairy herds in the U.S. has spread to 17 states and more than 1,000 herds. The increasing number of domestic and wild animals found to be infected is worrying, suggesting that the dreaded mutation allowing easy human-to-human transmission is becoming more likely by the day. When that happens, many people will die, and many more will clamour for a vaccine.

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Luckily, we already have more than one licensed H5N1 vaccines based on older, non-mRNA technology. But their efficacy is largely unknown, and many of them are manufactured via incubating the virus inside live eggs. However, in the event of an avian flu pandemic, finding enough uninfected eggs to produce doses at scale might be problematic.