In this installment of her column "Science at the Crossroads," Ellie Ward (CAS '28) discusses recent changes in vaccination policy.
Soon after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, concerns for possible changes to U.S. vaccine policy quickly emerged, particularly with the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kennedy has a prominent history of vaccine skepticism. In the months since President Trump took office, federal budget cuts for scientific research and the United States’ withdrawal from international public health groups such as the World Health Organization have dominated headlines.
Vaccination policy has now been changing. The Trump administration has adjusted domestic and foreign vaccine funding, public health education and enforcement around vaccines.
Domestically, research funding cuts have been notably aimed at coronavirus vaccine research, including both research into alternative prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and research into other coronaviruses that pose a threat of transitioning from animal to human viruses. The Trump administration has argued this research is no longer pertinent after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most of the defunded research is aimed at the prevention of future pandemics. The decision has come under fire from leaders in the scientific field, including Pamela Bjorkman, a biochemist and molecular biologist at the California Institute of Technology, who called the reasoning absurd.
Research funding cuts are only part of the multidimensional efforts to foment skepticism surrounding vaccines. Trump signed an executive order to prevent the use of federal funds for any public education institution that requires COVID-19 vaccination for attendance. The termination of a vaccine education program designed to teach children about vaccines’ ability to decrease disease severity will also see impacts in public health.
This is a particularly notable shift amid a winter with the highest influenza hospitalization levels in 15 years. With vaccination requirements and readily accessible information about the benefits of vaccines growing scarcer, public schools appear particularly vulnerable.
Furthermore, the Trump administration made the sweeping decision to eliminate federal funding to Gavi, an international vaccine alliance to which the United States has been the third largest contributor. Gavi has vaccinated more than 1.1 billion children since its founding in 2000, saving 19 million lives according to a New York Times estimate.
Trump said the administration based the decision on an assessment of alignment between administrative priorities and funding by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of State pointed out that U.S. Agency for International Development programs focused on the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and some HIV prevention efforts have not been cut.
Nonetheless, the funding cuts to Gavi could have severe consequences. While Gavi will be able to maintain many of its life-saving efforts, CEO Sania Nishtar estimated that 1 million children would die over the next five years as a result of this decision. Furthermore, Dr. William Moss, leader of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said the decision would lead to a direct increase in measles outbreaks. Moss also noted the potential for a resurgence of other diseases, including whooping cough and rotavirus diarrhea.
Amid these potential impacts, the future of both domestic and global public health feels dire. It is hard to imagine the extent of the consequences in a field as complex and interconnected as public health and safety.
Looking forward, the Trump administration’s interest in ongoing mRNA vaccine research is beginning to raise red flags for some researchers. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been performing keyword searches for research related to mRNA vaccination. The NIH has also requested information from journals such as “Nature” on research grants and related funding for mRNA research. While the administration has not yet made official cuts to mRNA vaccine development, it is a topic to watch in the coming months.
The first months of the Trump administration have shown an effort to deprioritize federal support for vaccine research, development and awareness. Among the many recent changes concerning the relationship between the federal government and scientific leaders in the United States, vaccine policy may prove to be one of the most consequential.