Moderna CEO responds to the crusade rfk Junior against the COVID-19 vaccine

In wired “The recent changes to the COVID-19 vaccine policy by Robert F. Kennedy, the Minister of Health and Human Services, are” lagging behind “, said Stephen Bangsan, CEO of Moderna.

Moderna is one of the MRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines manufacturer, and last month the company approved the Food and Drug Administration for the updated version of this shot. But as part of this approval, the FDA imposed new restrictions for who could receive the vaccine. Previously, COVID vaccines were recommended for anyone 6 months or higher. Now, the FDA says they should only be at risk for serious illness, either due to 65 years or older or have other health problems.

“I think I think these things are complicated to people,” Bangsan said. “You may have someone in your home – parents, spouses, a child” who are at risk “you want to protect,” he said. Healthy people can only go to a pharmacy to get a COVID shot. Now, several states need a COVID version because of FDA changes.

Kennedy has been in a cross against the vaccine since walking in the role of HHS Secretary in February. Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee barbecued his actions so far.

In May, Kennedy terminated $ 590 million with Moderna to develop a MRNA -based bird flu vaccine candidate. The deal was awarded in the final days of the Biden administration in January, just before President Donald Trump began. The bird flu is widespread in wild birds and has caused prevalence in US poultry and dairy cows since March 2024. This has led to the scattered cases in individuals, most of them farm workers, but if they are capable of expanding from person to person, it creates the potential of the epidemic.

That same month, Kennedy announced that HHS no longer recommends the MRNA COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women. In June, the FDA announced that it would require new labels in MRNA vaccines to include safety information on the risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, the rare side effects that are most commonly seen in young men after prescribing photos.

In August, as part of the “coordinated wind” of the MRNA vaccine investigation, HHS canceled 22 contracts and the relevant investment valued at nearly $ 500 million. “These vaccines” do not protect effectively against upper respiratory infections such as COVID and flu, “Kennedy said in a statement. Instead, HHS changes the budget to an older vaccine platform known as the “whole virus” vaccine.

Despite the government’s strong reaction to MRNA vaccines, Bangsan said he was “encouraged by the conversation” the company had with the FDA. In addition to updating COVID photos, albeit with restrictions, Moderna also received the vaccine this year due to its respiratory synchronic virus or RSV to put adults 18 to 59 years old. The vaccine was first approved in May 2024 for adults 60 and older.

“I think a lot of people in January, including my own team, were completely worried that we might not receive these approvals,” Bansel said.

Government repression in MRNA research has not yet expanded to the cancer space, and Moderna is developing several MRNA treatment against cancer, including personal cancer vaccines. The company has 45 cancer -related programs in the pipeline and said it expects to be 10 FDA approved in the next three years. “We use exactly the same technology to get cancer from infectious disease,” Bansel said.

He also paid allegations that COVID vaccines were not well tested. “I don’t think that in the history of the vaccines, a vaccine has been studied for effectiveness and safety,” he said. “In terms of the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, there have been studies that have literally done millions of people in the real world.”