WORCESTER, Mass. - This week the Trump administration announced its is pulling the plug on some funding for the development of vaccines used to fight things like COVID-19 and the flu.

The decision is discouraging for some in the scientific community who said the vaccines could lead to innovations in AIDS and Cancer treatments.

The announcement made by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. means $500-million for 22 projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.

“He doesn't know what he's talking about,” Vaccine Specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Dr. Paul Offit said of the secretary. 

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his department will prioritize safer, broader, vaccine strategies, claiming mRNA vaccines don't perform well against viruses which infect the upper respiratory tract. Vaccine specialist Dr. Paul Offit said mRNA technology has worked very well.

“We know more about this vaccine than I think any other vaccine it's ever been made," Offit said. "This vaccine has been given to billions of people, including pregnant women, including babies. So, we know a lot about this vaccine, which can help us with these other platforms.”

Clinical trials for mRNA vaccine technology underway right now to create vaccines for things like the flu, hepatitis, bird flu, and even some forms of cancer will soon be stopped following this week’s announcement. Dr. Matt Motta PhD of the Boston University School of Public Health said the move could set us back years, if not decades.

“These are illnesses that plague all of us and our loved ones, and mRNA vaccine technology could be the answer," Motta said. "Taking away money from mRNA vaccine research really makes it difficult for us, as a society, to solve some of the public health problems that have plagued us for generations.”

As RFK Jr. is now criticizing the first Trump administration’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ which fast-tracked COVID vaccine development, Motta said misinformation about vaccines has become deeply political.

“Attacking the technology that's in the vaccine," Motta said, "becomes a way to justify whether you think policies that promote COVID-19 vaccination are a good or a bad thing.”

“I think Operation Warp Speed, frankly, was one of the greatest scientific or medical achievements in my lifetime," Offit said. "And my lifetime includes the development of the polio vaccine. It was a remarkable effort within 11 months of that virus coming into this country, we made a vaccine using a novel technology that saved millions of lives safely. And now you have a secretary of health and Human Services who has said it's what created the most dangerous vaccine ever made; I would think President Trump would be angry about a statement like that.”

Now, Motta said, decisions are being made as a result of polarization over mRNA vaccines.

“That then perversely creates a demand for anti-vaccine policies," Motta said. "If the public doesn't like mRNA vaccines or thinks that they're not safe, policymakers who depend on the public to win reelection then try to introduce policies that make it harder for people to get mRNA vaccinated.”

Motta suspects this announcement from HHS will be the source of more litigation between states and the Trump administration moving forward.