Trump administration’s unprecedented $ 500 million subsidies for a wide range of protective flu shots confused experts in vaccines and fashionability.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Minister of Health and Welfare has recently switched to a vaccine development program led by two scientists nominated for the National Institute of Health.
Some experts said they were pleased to see Kennedy’s support for vaccine projects, but the announcement on May 1 seemed to violate sound scientific policies and arbitrarily, and raised a kind of questions about conflicts that strengthened President Donald Trump’s many actions.
William Schaffner, a professor of Vanderbilt University and a former president of the National Intectual Disease Foundation, said, “It is a bit similar to that you go to Kentucky Derby and put all the money in one horse.” “In science, we usually invested money in many other words. Because we can’t be sure who will win.”
Candidate vaccines have been mysterious by the decision because they use the ESCHEWS technology developed by using the technology that is greatly abandoned in the 1970s and in recent decades by raising funds from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Defense.
“This is not the next -generation vaccine,” said Rick Bright, the first Trump administration, HHS’s Biosical Biological R & D authorities (BARDA). “It’s too last generation or first generation.”
The vaccine was national by Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of the US Kobid 19 policy, which Trump Trump led NIH until April 1, at the end of April. It is being developed by the Allergic and Infectious Disease Research Institute. Bhattacharya named Memoli as his main deputy director.
Taubenberger was renowned as a military pathologist research institute in 1997 when his laboratory sequenced the genome of the infectious influenza virus in 1918 in 1997, and used the tissue sample of the US military who died of infectious diseases. He joined NIH in 2006.
In the news release on May 1, HHS was called Taubenberger-Memoli Vaccine Initiative “Generation Gold Standard” and indicated “a decisive transition with transparency, effect and comprehensive preparation.” Bhattacharya said it represents a “paradigm shift.”
However, the goal of the NIH vaccine maker is not new to create a shot that protects various strains or all strains of influenza (the vaccine must be provided every year to explain the current virus changes).
At that time, Niaid ANTHONY FAUCI began a network of academic researchers in 2019 to pursue a wide range of protective flu vaccines. NIH -led consortiumIn the US and other countries, more than 200 flu vaccines are being developed.
Many people use the latest technology, and some are in the stages of advanced human tests than the Taubenberger vaccine, and since 1944, it seems to be used in the flu vaccine.
In the news release, HHS described the vaccine as “advanced test” and said it would lead to “strong” and “long -lasting protection.” But Taubenberger and his colleagues have not yet published a complete human study of the vaccine. Research on vaccines The mouse protected from the flu appeared in 2022.
In the case of operating warp speeds that created Cobid vaccines during Trump’s first term, government scientists said they reviewed the detailed plans and data of the academic and commercial laboratory competing for federal funds. Greg PolandAtria Health Science and Medicine is a flu expert and chairman. “It’s opaque to me if you wake up here,” he said.
A spokesman for HHS, Andrew Nixon, pointed out a page statement from the institution when he asked what data was supported beyond the press release. Nixon did not respond specifically when this decision asked whether it would reduce the funds for the consortium or other universal vaccine approach created by the faucet. “Generation Gold Standard is the most promising,” he said in the email.
Taubenberger did not respond to the request. NIXON and NIH spokesman Amanda Fine did not respond to an interview request with Taubenberger or Memoli.
The HHS statement emphasized that by developing an internal vaccine, the government ensures freedom from radical transparency, public responsibility and commercial conflict. Schaffner said that vaccines should eventually be done commercially, but the NIH participation through more development stages can have a greater impact on the end price of the vaccine, Schaffner said.
When MRNA-based cobid shots produced by Moderna and PFIZER-BionTech indicate the cutting edge of vaccine technology, the approach of Taubenberger and Memoli indicates the past explosion by applying the ultra-identity approach that was not seen in the vaccination.
Their vaccine is made by activating the influenza virus with a carcinogenic chemical called beta-propolic lacton. Scientists used chemicals to neutralize their viruses since the 1950s. The method of activating this entire virus using other chemicals was the standard method of making the flu vaccine when the flu vaccine was modified in the 1970s. In part, the entire viral vaccine caused a high heat or seizure of the child.
Limited Taubenberger vaccine data has been posted. In the initial safety test Including 45 patients, there was no big side effect. Scientists are testing the vaccine with regular shots and testing them with a nasal spray with the idea of stopping the virus in the respiratory system before causing a wide infection.
Poland, who called Taubenberger as a great scientist, said, “The concept of universal Influenza Afa Micced is a good scientist.
Paul Friedrichs, a retired Air Force General, who leads the prevalence and response policies at the White House of President Joe Biden, said, “Unlike what I saw, it gives $ 500 million in prepaid.”
Friedrichs said, “Vaccine development technology has evolved tremendously over decades.” Why do we return to approaches related to side effects that are more historically more frequent? “
Friedrichs says Friedrichs has transferred money to develop Taubenberger vaccines from $ 1.3 billion of the $ 1.3 billion vaccine fund of Barda’s main program. Most of the money was assigned to support advanced research on covid and other viral vaccines, including protection from emerging diseases.
Poland said, “It is very important not to emphasize the covid we can live to regret.” “It is assumed that there is no covid deformation that avoids high levels of covid immunity.”
Nixon said that some funds are being reviewed by the project NEXTGEN, assigned to MRNA research. Kennedy is critical of the MRNA vaccine and once claimed to be the most deadly vaccine in history.
“We are pleased to see investing in respiratory vaccines, including universal flu vaccines,” said Cleveland Clinic’s global vaccine development director.
Ross said, “But I don’t think this is the only approach.” Other universal flu vaccines are in progress and success and failure are not yet known. ”
His team, part of the flu vaccine consortium supported by NIAID, uses artificial intelligence and computer modeling to design vaccines that produce the most extensive immunity to influenza, including seasonal and infectious diseases.
As a temporary director, Memoli supervised the expedition of massive cuts from the administration in the NIH and removed more than $ 2 billion. More than 1,200 NIH employees It is fired and many researchers, including Ross, are in Limbo.
Ross said his laboratory is close to testing candidate vaccines for people. “I’m not sure if my contract is in the cutting board.”
