U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has halted roughly $500 million in federal funding for 22 mRNA-based vaccine development projects run through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Kennedy said the money will be shifted toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms” that he argues remain effective as viruses mutate. The decision, announced last week, immediately drew condemnation from former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, who warned the cutbacks could cost lives and stall progress in one of medicine’s most promising fields. Adams noted that mRNA technology was credited with saving about two million lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and called Kennedy’s claims about the platform’s limitations “simply not true.” Kennedy is also under legal pressure from Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group he co-founded, which sued him last month for failing to convene a congressionally mandated task force on childhood immunizations. Meanwhile, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have offered only tepid support for his broader overhaul of vaccine policy, even as several states advance measures aligned with his push to expand vaccine exemptions. Public-health experts caution that appointing panelists without vaccine expertise to new advisory bodies could weaken immunization programs without improving safety, potentially reversing gains made since the pandemic. Kennedy has not indicated whether he will reconsider the funding freeze amid growing criticism.