TUESDAY, April 1, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Hundreds of U.S. research projects aimed at boosting vaccine confidence have been shut down — just as preventable diseases like measles and flu are on the rise.
Since Jan. 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has canceled more than 1,600 research grants.
Around 300 of those were for vaccine-related projects, making it one of the biggest areas affected by the cuts.
In a viewpoint published Monday in the medical journal JAMA, three pediatricians warn the cuts could have dangerous consequences.
“The lives of individuals in the U.S. are at stake,” Dr. Douglas Opel, Dr. Sean O’Leary and Dr. Melissa Stockwell wrote.
Opel, a pediatrician at the University of Washington, had been studying ways to build vaccine confidence in Native American and Alaska Native communities, according to CNN. But, the viewpoint noted that a letter from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stated: “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.”
Opel told CNN: “This was a broad swath of work that was terminated, all focused on trying to understand the needs of individuals and communities regarding vaccines.”
Stockwell, chief of child and adolescent health at Columbia University, was leading a study on using text messages to increase flu and COVID vaccine rates in kids. Her team had already spent nearly $1 million setting up the project.
Now, Stockwell said, they won’t be able to see the results.
“What made it particularly devastating was that it wasn’t only my grant, but it was this community of researchers across the country … It was all happening to us simultaneously,” she added.
The researchers say the timing couldn’t be worse.
One recent study published in the journal Vaccine found that 1 in 5 U.S. parents are hesitant about vaccines. Meanwhile, cases of measles, flu and whooping cough are on the rise.
“It really makes no logical sense,” O’Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told CNN. “We think of measles as the canary in the coal mine of vaccine-preventable diseases, because it’s so contagious that it’s the first one when you see immunization coverage in general drop. It’s the first one you’re going to see pop up.”
A growing measles outbreak is causing concern. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently wrote that parents should talk to their doctors about the MMR vaccine.
He didn’t recommend it but acknowledged it can help protect both individuals and communities, CNN reported.
The grant termination letters said that the “NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people.”
Every dollar spent on childhood vaccines saves about $10 in future health costs, according to the group Vaccinate Your Family, which was co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
For the NIH to no longer be supporting them is chilling, Opel said. “It’s just absolutely unequivocal how important and beneficial vaccines are to the American public.”
More information
There’s more about vaccines at John Hopkins’ Institute for Vaccine Safety.
SOURCE: CNN, March 31, 2025
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