In this column, distributed by the 黑料不打烊 Writers Syndicate, Professor of Biology Dave Gammon discusses the science and data of vaccines. The column was published by the "Greensboro News & Record," "The Reflector" and "The Sylvia Herald."
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently terminated $500 million in federal funding for developing mRNA vaccines, but don鈥檛 be fooled into thinking these life-saving tools are now obsolete. President Trump鈥檚 鈥淥peration Warp Speed鈥 showed the world that mRNA vaccines, such as the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, represent the future of vaccine technology.
This is not an article to rehash pointless and stale political debates about COVID-19. Been there, done that.
I won鈥檛 comment on whether funding for vaccine research should come from the private versus public sector. I also won鈥檛 comment on whether anyone should mandate vaccines for their citizens or employees. There is room for legitimate disagreement on these important social topics.
My article will focus instead on the science of vaccines. And in matters of science, the data should take center stage. Legal and political opinions are secondary.
One well-supported conclusion about vaccines is that even though side effects vary, some vaccines have provided fantastic benefits to public health. Smallpox was eradicated globally by 1980. This could never have happened without vaccines.
Vaccines also allowed us to eliminate measles from the United States by 2000. A few years later the virus sneaked its way back into our country, largely because some folks concluded they and their children would be better off unvaccinated. The ongoing measles outbreak of 2025 unfortunately affects primarily these unvaccinated individuals. The data on the benefits of measles vaccination are so clear now that even Kennedy said he would 鈥減robably鈥 vaccinate his own children against measles.
mRNA vaccines represent the latest in a long line of vaccination innovations. If you want proof, search the internet for a readable peer-reviewed article titled 鈥渟afety and effectiveness of mRNA vaccines鈥 in the open-access medical journal 鈥淐ureus.鈥 More research is still needed on how to store mRNA vaccines at room temperature and on how to reduce negative side effects, but there is no question about their overall potential.
Traditional vaccines still work, but mRNA vaccines are categorically better. It鈥檚 like comparing flip phones to smartphones. Flip phones were amazing for their time, but no serious investor would place their money on flip phone technology today. Similarly, Kennedy is misguided to think that research money would be better spent on traditional vaccines.
Take speed and scale. Traditional vaccines take months and even years to develop. In contrast, mRNA vaccines can be produced an order of magnitude faster. The first step, sequencing the pathogen鈥檚 genome, takes just a few hours.
Scientists then synthesize a sequence of genetic material called mRNA that codes for the protein antigens found in the pathogen. After the mRNA is delivered to your body through a vaccine, your cells can then synthesize these antigens, which trains your immune system to target and destroy the pathogen. You can see this process summarized as an infographic by searching the internet for 鈥渕RNA vaccine production鈥 at 鈥済enome.gov.鈥
Because sequencing and synthesizing genetic material is easy and cheap, mRNA vaccines are much more adaptable than traditional vaccines. They provide flexible manufacturing options for business. Next time we find ourselves in another rapidly evolving pandemic, mRNA vaccines will help us to remain a step ahead of new pathogen variants.
Just as smart phones facilitated new apps that would never work on flip phones, mRNA vaccines are bringing new applications that move way beyond the COVID-19 virus. For example, scientists are now testing new types of mRNA vaccines that show promise against various cancers, chronic infections like HIV and autoimmune diseases like MS.
As a proud American, I don鈥檛 want my country to fall behind the rest of the world when it comes to vaccine technology. And make no mistake, the rest of the world will move forward with or without us in the development of mRNA vaccines.
Let鈥檚 not squander the future by losing our faith in mRNA vaccine technology.
Views expressed in this column are the author鈥檚 own and not necessarily those of 黑料不打烊.