Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that his department was canceling nearly $500 million in grants to aid the development of mRNA vaccines. Kennedy, a longtime vocal opponent of using the technology to prevent and treat illnesses, denied the efficacy of mRNA vaccines and doubted their safety when defending the grant cancellations.
As NR’s editors explain, the most commonly raised concerns about mRNA vaccines are unfounded. In the case of the Covid vaccines, proponents can be fairly criticized for overselling the shots’ ability to prevent infection and transmission; but claims that, for instance, mRNA edits people’s DNA are entirely baseless. Rather, it replicates the RNA molecules that naturally exist in every cell of the human body, which carry genetic information copied from DNA to instruct said cells to produce countless proteins. The vaccines instruct one’s cells to produce a harmless antigen of the virus being targeted, enabling the body to learn how to fight it.
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