President Donald Trump’s former surgeon general is warning that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cancel half a billion dollars in vaccine projects will “cost lives.”
Jerome Adams, who served under Trump during his first term, called vaccine-skeptic Kennedy’s move to terminate federal contracts for the development of 22 mRNA vaccines “dangerous” in a post on X.
“I’ve tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions – but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives,” Adams wrote.
He joins a growing chorus of doctors and scientists condemning Kennedy’s bombshell announcement, which halts research involving some of the nation’s top pharmaceutical firms working on vaccines for H1N1 influenza, COVID-19, and H5N1 bird flu. Experts fear many targeted projects will be vital in preventing the next pandemic.
Kennedy defended the decision by claiming that mRNA vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” He added that HHS “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” but did not provide further details.
Adams, who served as the 20th U.S. Surgeon General from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Trump’s COVID task force, pushed back hard on Kennedy’s claims.
“mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines… and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first time Adams broke ranks with the MAGA-verse on public health. In June, he said he was “deeply concerned” after Kennedy fired all 17 members of a CDC panel that advised on vaccine policy.
Adams also publicly rebuked Trump’s baseless 2021 claim that the CDC had “exaggerated” COVID-19 death counts, telling CNN at the time he had “no reason to doubt those numbers.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
