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Abstract: 

In this sharply argued essay, vaccine researcher Deborah Fuller dismantles Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s scientifically inaccurate claims that mRNA vaccines are unsafe and ineffective. She explains that Kennedy’s funding cuts and return to 19th-century whole-virus vaccine strategies ignore decades of evidence showing that mRNA vaccines are safer, faster to develop, and more adaptable to viral mutations. Fuller details how misused or non-peer-reviewed studies have been cited to justify anti-mRNA policies, clarifying key misconceptions about myocarditis, viral mutation, and immune response. She warns that defunding mRNA research—now central to vaccine innovation for infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disorders—jeopardizes U.S. readiness for future pandemics and represents a politicization of science with deadly potential.

Keywords: mRNA Vaccines; Vaccine Policy; Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Misinformation; Public Health

Affiliations:  1: University of Washington.