The US Department of Health and Human Services will terminate 22 federally funded projects developing messenger RNA vaccines, halting roughly $500 million in spending, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday. BARDA, the agency overseeing the portfolio, will cancel or de-scope contracts and solicitations covering experimental vaccines for COVID-19, seasonal influenza and H5N1 bird flu that involve Moderna, Pfizer, Sanofi, CSL Seqirus, Emory University and other partners. Two late-stage awards held by Arcturus and Amplitude will be allowed to run their course, but no new mRNA initiatives will be launched. Kennedy said a departmental review concluded that current mRNA candidates "fail to protect effectively against upper-respiratory infections like COVID and flu." HHS plans to redirect the freed funds toward what it called safer, broader vaccine platforms designed to retain efficacy as viruses mutate. Vaccine researchers and pandemic-preparedness experts cautioned that abandoning the fastest-to-market technology used during the 2020 pandemic could delay US access to countermeasures in future outbreaks and hand leadership in next-generation vaccines to foreign competitors. The move follows Kennedy’s June decision to cut US financing for Gavi, signaling a broader reorientation of federal vaccine policy.