Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) slammed Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s decision to pull millions in funding for vaccines research on Wednesday.
“It is unfortunate that the Secretary just canceled a half a billion worth of work, wasting the money which is already invested,” Cassidy wrote in a statement in X. “He has also conceded to China an important technology needed to combat cancer and infectious disease. President Trump wants to Make America Healthy Again and Make America Great Again. This works against both of President Trump’s goals.”
On Tuesday, Kennedy announced in a statement that HHS will cancel 22 projects, totalling $500 million, in contracts for some vaccines that are being developed using mRNA technology to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.
Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaxxer, would not have been in a position to terminate those contracts if Cassidy, a medical doctor, never voted to advance his nomination out of the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year.
