NIH quotes the MRNA vaccine contract citing lack of confidence in the people
National Health Institutes (NIH) Director J Bhattacharya has claimed that the federal government recently canceled several million dollars of MRNA research agreements because the general public did not believe in technology.
Bhattacharya explained the reason behind the sudden cancellation of the agreement during an episode of Steve Bannon’s political strategist Steve Banon’s Podcast “War Room”, and an OP-Ed in the Washington Post last week.
In the article, Bhattacharya called the MRNA platform a “committed technology” and acknowledged that it could progress in the treatment of diseases such as cancer.
“But as a vaccine for a wide public use, especially in a public health emergency, the platform failed in an important test: gaining public confidence,” he wrote.
“No matter how elegant the science, a platform that wants to protect them cannot meet its public health mission.”
Bhattacharya’s explanation for the administration’s pivot away from MRNA technology is different from his boss, health and human services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy announced last week that the company will reduce the vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Barda) and cancel $ 500 million in relation to technology.
He said that during the epidemic, the meaningful MRNA technologies failed to meet the current scientific standard and the federal government would transfer its focus on the entire virus vaccine and fancy platforms.
Bhattacharya expressed concern over the ability to instruct human cells to produce spike protein to trigger the resistance of MRNA vaccines. He argued that the scientific community had no clear idea of where the MRNA product was in the body, how long and other proteins were made in the process.
Scott Hensley, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Palelman School of Medicine, told Stat News that they were also problems with vaccines, which use lives like ham, momps and rubella vaccines but use weak viruses, which federal health agencies are safer and effective.
“This is why we complete the human clinical studies before the vaccines are widely used in humans,” he told outlet. “Both MRNA and Live Atenewed Vaccine Platforms have proven safe and effective in clinical trials.”
He blamed the public mistrust in the MRNA on the Covid -19 vaccine mandate of the Biden administration during the epidemic.
“Science is not preaching,” Bhattacharya wrote The Op-Aid. “It’s humility.
A spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department immediately responded to any request to comment from the hill.
