National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya believes mRNA vaccine technology is “promising” but has failed at “earning public trust,” speaking one week after the federal government canceled $500 million for its development.
Once hailed as a “medical miracle” by then-President Trump during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines are the latest innovation put on the chopping block by Bhattacharya’s boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy last week announced HHS would begin a “coordinated wind-down” of its mRNA vaccine development activities. His reasoning — that the vaccines were unsafe — contradicted Bhattacharya’s, outlined in a recently published op-ed for The Washington Post.
NIH director blames Biden’s ‘overreach’ for vaccine skepticism
Bhattacharya’s piece did not portray mRNA vaccines as dangerous, but rather still in progress: “Still, I do not believe the mRNA vaccines caused either mass harm on the one hand or saved 14 million lives on the other. Those estimates swing wildly based on speculative modeling, not concrete evidence.”
He also refuted the idea that reluctance to get vaccinated or vaccinate children is due to an increased “anti-vax” sentiment.
Instead, the NIH director placed the blame on the Biden administration for mandating COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. Notably, most of those mandates were overturned through legal means or pulled by the administration — only a mandate for certain health care workers was upheld.
“The failure was thus not a communications problem. It is a trust problem due to the Biden administration’s scientific overreach, public pressure and, frankly, arrogance,” he wrote.
mRNA technology enabled the development of those COVID-19 vaccines, which experts like former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams credit as saving millions of lives. --->READ MORE HERE
 |
| Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press |
So-called mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic — and now scientists are using that Nobel Prize-winning technology to try to develop vaccines and treatments against a long list of diseases including cancer and cystic fibrosis.
But this week, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic, canceled $500 million in government-funded research projects to create new mRNA vaccines against respiratory illnesses that might trigger another health emergency.
That dismays infectious disease experts who note that mRNA allows faster production of shots than older vaccine-production methods, buying precious time if another pandemic were to emerge.
Using older technology to target a pandemic flu strain would take 18 months to “make enough vaccine to vaccinate only about one-fourth of the world," said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, an expert on pandemic preparation. But using mRNA technology “could change that dramatically, such that by the end of the first year, we could vaccinate the world.”
How mRNA technology works
Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses called proteins — often in giant vats of cells or, like most flu shots, in chicken eggs — and then purifying them. Injecting a small dose as a vaccine trains the body how to recognize when a real infection hits so it's ready to fight back.
But that technology takes a long time. Using mRNA is a faster process.
The “m” stands for messenger, meaning mRNA carries instructions for our bodies to make proteins. Scientists figured out how to harness that natural process by making mRNA in a lab. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
They cleaned subways during COVID-19 pandemic
What Exactly Is Long COVID? Different Definitions Make Diagnosis and Treatment Difficult
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment