{"id":2341,"date":"2025-05-29T11:40:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/hhs-cancels-590-million-contract-with-moderna-for-bird-flu-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:40:39","slug":"hhs-cancels-590-million-contract-with-moderna-for-bird-flu-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/hhs-cancels-590-million-contract-with-moderna-for-bird-flu-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"HHS cancels $590 million contract with Moderna for bird flu vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/action-bar\/instances\/cmb8j9iib000r26qghd35dxod@published\" data-label-id-prefix=\"action-bar-start-of-article\" class=\"action-bar\" data-dynamic-breakpoint-placement=\"{&quot;extraLarge&quot;:{&quot;placement&quot;:&quot;.layout-article-elevate__left&quot;}}\" 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<\/button>        <\/p>\n<div class=\"social-share_labelled-list__copied\" data-type=\"message\">                        Link Copied!        <\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>    <button class=\"social-share_labelled-list__open\" data-type=\"open\" aria-label=\"open social share\" title=\"Open social share\">            <\/button>    <button class=\"social-share_labelled-list__close\" data-type=\"close\" aria-label=\"close social share\" title=\"Close social share\">            <\/button><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"action-bar__buttons\">            <button class=\"action-bar__button\" data-title=\"follow\">                                        Follow            <\/button>            <button class=\"action-bar__button\" data-title=\"share options\">                                <\/button>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8j9iib000t26qg3tk97o39@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The US Department of Health and Human Services is terminating a contract with drugmaker Moderna to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu amid the agency\u2019s broader efforts to reevaluate therapies that use mRNA technology.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw00063b6mpjxvspwd@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The contract, which was worth $590 million, was announced in mid-January, just before President Donald Trump\u2019s second term.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw00073b6mesy4qkgo@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Moderna said Wednesday that an early-phase trial of its mRNA-based vaccine against H5 bird flu in about 300 healthy adults showed \u201ca rapid, potent and durable immune response.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw00083b6my73hz9tw@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWhile the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile \u2026 and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program,\u201d Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. \u201dThese clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw00093b6mq56percf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            However, HHS said Wednesday that the project doesn\u2019t meet scientific or safety expectations for continued investment.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000a3b6mr1cvq1k5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cAfter a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna\u2019s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,\u201d HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in a statement. \u201cThe reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000c3b6mpeqjtaa9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            MRNA technology is already used in Moderna\u2019s and Pfizer\/BioNTech\u2019s currently licensed Covid-19 vaccines, which have been found to be safe and effective. But public health experts have expressed concern that increasing anti-vaccine sentiments in general \u2013 and anti-mRNA sentiments specifically \u2013 may block people from accessing vaccines.    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/related-content\/instances\/cmb8khsbr000p3b6mbz2tbkih@published\" data-component-name=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content-elevate related-content--article\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<header class=\"related-content__title related-content__title-text\" data-editable=\"content.title\">Related article<\/header>\n<section class=\"related-content__body\">\n<div class=\"related-content__image image__related-content\">\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/image\/instances\/cmavh05qw001k27p3bqg29314@published\" class=\"image-elevate image__hide-placeholder\" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-name=\"AP24233550638194.jpg\" data-component-name=\"image\" data-observe-resizes=\"\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--eq-large&quot;: 660}\" data-original-ratio=\"0.666826923076923\" data-original-height=\"1387\" data-original-width=\"2080\" data-url=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap24233550638194-20250519192714646.jpg?c=original\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"image__container \" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--show-credits&quot;: 525}\">           <\/div>\n<div class=\"image__metadata-container media__metadata-container\">\n<div class=\"image__metadata media__metadata\">\n<div class=\"image__caption attribution\">    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">This colorized electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2024 shows avian influenza A virus (bird flu) particles, red\/yellow, grown in cultured cells. (CDC, NIAID via AP)<\/span>  <\/div><figcaption class=\"image__credit\">CDC\/NIAID\/AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"related-content__headline\">        <span class=\"related-content__headline-text\" data-editable=\"content.headline\">The US hasn\u2019t seen a human bird flu case in 3 months. Experts are wondering why<\/span>      <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8ki7q300003b6msruuve3g@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cThe attack on mRNA vaccines is beyond absurd,\u201d Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the White House Covid-19 response coordinator in the Biden administration, said Wednesday on social media. \u201cIt was President Trump\u2019s Operation Warp Speed that gave us mRNA vaccines. These vaccines have been administered nearly 2 billion times to hundreds of millions of people around the world \u2013 making it one of the most widely used and widely studied vaccines in human history. They are safe and work well.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kr5ak00043b6mg44ujkyj@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cIf Bird Flu starts spreading from people to people, we will come to regret this as the day we decided to put the lives of the American people at grave risk.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000d3b6mdsv0r0u7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a broad term that refers to several types of influenza that normally infect birds. The H5N1 virus has raised concern among health officials because it has sickened dozens of people in the United States and killed one.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000e3b6mp4wr0m95@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The US does have vaccines against H5 viruses in its Strategic National Stockpile, but they are made with older technology.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000f3b6m2rz57sya@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            In February, Bloomberg News reported that US health officials were reevaluating the Moderna contract.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmb8kdjfw000h3b6m7aetb8bc@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cSo we worked very closely with industry to try and find ways to fund research and clinical trials and make sure that we had a variety of options available if this virus became more dangerous,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause we just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen next with this virus.\u201d    <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vaccines Respiratory viruses Federal agencies See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Link Copied! Follow The US Department of Health and Human Services is terminating a contract with drugmaker Moderna to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu amid the agency\u2019s broader efforts to reevaluate therapies that use mRNA technology. The contract, which was &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_primary_category":0,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":542,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}