By Alec Schemmel | Fox News
The decision follows HHS's removal of COVID vaccines from federal vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women
President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is terminating awards totaling more than $750 million dollars that were provided to pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna to help facilitate its production of mRNA-based bird flu vaccines.
During President Joe Biden’s final week in office, his administration awarded $590 million to Moderna to help speed up its production of mRNA-based vaccines. The $590 million award followed a separate $176 million award Biden gave to Moderna earlier last year for mRNA vaccine technology.
Messenger RNA vaccines are a newer type of vaccine technology, which was utilized by companies like Moderna and Pfizer to develop their COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine technology was at the center of a lot of criticism amid the coronavirus pandemic for potentially being associated with adverse side effects in some people who took them, such as myocarditis.
Trump administration officials previously hinted at the potential that this funding could be terminated, citing a lack of oversight during the Biden administration pertaining to vaccine production.
“After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said. “This is not simply about efficacy — it’s about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.”