{"id":55186,"date":"2025-08-08T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55186\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T19:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:15:06","slug":"rfk-jr-s-defunding-of-mrna-vaccines-to-threaten-canadian-tech-access-stall-development-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55186\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr.\u2019s defunding of mRNA vaccines to threaten Canadian tech access, stall development, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

On Aug. 5, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was halting funding for 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth nearly US$500-million.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canadian doctors and scientists say Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s defunding of mRNA vaccine development projects will have negative health effects in Canada and around the world. <\/p>\n

University of Saskatchewan virologist Angela Rasmussen says unlike other vaccines, mRNA vaccines can be made very quickly and easily modified to fight new viruses and adapt to changing strains. <\/p>\n

Rasmussen and other medical experts say that ability is critical as the world prepares for H5N1 bird flu as a possible next pandemic. <\/p>\n

Canada Research Chair in Viral Pandemics Matthew Miller says the U.S. is one of the largest funders of medical research in the world and defunding mRNA vaccine research will likely stall development and threaten Canada\u2019s access to vital vaccine technology. <\/p>\n

RFK Jr.\u2019s cuts to vaccine funding threaten pandemic preparedness, Canadian health experts warn<\/a><\/p>\n

Calgary pediatric infectious diseases specialist Dr. Cora Constantinescu says Kennedy\u2019s false claims that mRNA vaccines are unsafe and ineffective will cause a \u201cvaccine confidence crisis\u201d on both sides of the border. <\/p>\n

She says that disinformation can also affect people\u2019s views of non-mRNA vaccines \u2013 something that\u2019s especially dangerous right now when both Canada and the U.S. are seeing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles. <\/p>\n

On Aug. 5, Kennedy announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was halting funding for 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth nearly US$500 million. <\/p>\n

Opinion: RFK Jr. and the return of measles could be a disastrous combination<\/a><\/p>\n

In May, Kennedy cancelled funding for Moderna\u2019s development of a pandemic influenza vaccine. A spokesperson for Moderna Canada said in an email Thursday that the company is \u201ccontinuing to explore alternatives for advancing our H5N1 program, consistent with our global commitment to pandemic preparedness.\u201d <\/p>\n

Both Pfizer Canada and Moderna Canada confirmed to The Canadian Press on Thursday that the U.S. backing away from mRNA vaccines should not affect availability of their updated COVID-19 vaccines in Canada this fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: On Aug. 5, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the U.S. Department of Health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-55186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}