The National Institutes of Health will reportedly cancel or scale back dozens of grants studying why people are hesitant to get vaccines and how to encourage community uptake of such measures.
“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment,” according to a statement by the institutes on the change to over 40 grantees, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post.
The message, from Michelle Bulls, director of the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration, leaves some grantees room to maintain funding if they scale back certain vaccine-related research.
It also reportedly stipulates that the awards from the institutes, the largest funders of biomedical research in the world, need to be terminated immediately Monday.
The Independent has contacted the National Institutes of Health and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, for comment.
The move is sure it alarm public health advocates, as were reports last week that the Centers for Disease Control will launch a study exploring a link between autism and vaccines, long a pet issue of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, despite widespread consensus that such links exists.
Kennedy, a long-time promoter of vaccine skepticism, is facing scrutiny for his handling of the measles outbreak across the U.S.
The outbreak, which has caused the first U.S. measles death in a decade, now involves at least 222 cases across 21 jurisdictions around the country, according to the CDC.
Ninety-four percent of the cases are among those who are unvaccinated or of undetermined vaccine status, according to the agency.
Kennedy initially downplayed the epidemic, saying at a cabinet meeting it was fairly routine.
“We are following the measles epidemic every day,” Kennedy said during the meeting. “Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year. In this country last year there were 16. So, it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.”
Kennedy later described the outbreak as a top priority, though he reportedly angered staff by sharing a photo of himself hiking in the mountains above Coachella, California at a time when health authorities are battling a shocking outbreak of a disease that was considered eliminated from the U.S. in the year 2000.
“It’s a serious role, he’s just a couple of weeks in and measles is not a common occurrence, and it should be all hands on deck,” a former Trump official told Politico. “When you’re taking a selfie out at Coachella, it’s pretty clear that you’re checked out.”
Others were alarmed that Kennedy hasn’t done enough to promote vaccines against the measles.
Last week, during his first national television interview about the outbreak, Kennedy spent much of his time praising the benefits of supplements like cod liver oil in treating the disease.
One of his advisers, Brett Giroir, took to X on Sunday after Kennedy touted the impact of vitamins in a Fox op-ed.
“Please do not rely on #VitaminA to save your child in the US — helps in Africa where there is deficiency — not here,” Giroir wrote. “I have both treated and buried children with measles.”
Elsewhere, Kennedy has reinforced the importance of the measles vaccine, though he has refrained from urging people to get the vaccine, instead emphasizing it’s a “personal” choice.
“Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” he wrote in an article last Monday.
