U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cancel $500 million in grants and contracts for mRNA vaccine development jeopardizes the health and safety of Americans — both now and for years to come.

The Nobel Prize-winning technology enabled the first COVID-19 vaccines to be developed with breathtaking speed during the first year of the pandemic, ultimately saving millions of lives. Yet Kennedy spent years undermining confidence in mRNA, a misinformation campaign that he continued after he took office. Now, he’s systematically dismantling the very infrastructure we need to respond to a future pandemic.

The secretary justified the decision to abandon mRNA in a video full of falsehoods that was posted on his social media. He opened by claiming that the vaccines "don’t perform well against viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract.”