RFK Jr cancelled mRNA research — but the US military is still funding it
Elie Dolgin • September 24, 2025
The Department of Defense is continuing to bankroll projects to develop vaccines against deadly pathogens.
The abrupt termination last month of nearly half a billion dollars in US government contracts for mRNA-vaccine research rattled scientists working inside and outside industry. The cuts raised alarm about the country’s commitment to the Nobel-prizewinning technology, which is credited with saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and is regarded as essential for fighting viruses in the future.
Yet not all large-scale research into mRNA vaccines in the United States is being dismantled. Nature has learnt that, even as the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — led by vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr — pulls back, the country’s military continues to bankroll parts of the same research.
Continue reading at Nature.
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