Moderna CEO responds to the Crusade of RFK JR. Against Covid-19 vaccine

In wirelessness Health Summit on Tuesday, CEO of Moderna Stéphane BANCEL He said recent changes on Covid-19 Vaccine policy provided by the Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services Robert F. Kennedy, the son “step back”.

Moderna is one of the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers that are taken from us, and last month the company obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration for An updated version of the shot. But as part of this approval, the FDA has imposed new restrictions on those who can receive the vaccine. Previously, COVID vaccines have been recommended for anyone 6 months or larger. Now, the FDA (FDA) says they should only give to individuals at risk of developing a serious disease, either because they are 65 years old or older or have other health problems.

“I think it is complicating things for people,” Bansel said. He said: “You may have someone in your home – one of the parents, the husband, and the child – who is at great risk,” you want to protect. Before, healthy individuals can go to a pharmacy to receive a coffee shot. Now, several prescription states require a Coffeted snapshot due to food and drug management changes.

Kennedy was on a Crusader campaign against vaccines Since he entered the role of the HHS secretary in February; Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee distorted his actions in office so far.

In May, Kennedy ended a $ 590 million contract with Moderna to develop its headquarters Bird flu Vaccine candidate. The contract was granted during the last days of the Biden administration in January, just before President Donald Trump’s term began directly. Wide -widespread bird flu in wild birds and caused an outbreak of the disease in poultry and American dairy cows since March 2024. It has caused separate cases in people, most of them are farm workers, but it represents the possibilities of if it is developing the ability to spread from person to person.

In the same month, Kennedy announced that HHS no longer recommends Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. In June, the FDA (FDA) said it requires new signs of flexible vaccines that include safety information about the dangers of myocarditis and pericarditis, and the rare side effects that were mostly observed in young people after giving shots.

In August, as part of a “coordinated revision” from a flexible vaccine research, HHS 22 canceled related contracts and investments worth $ 500 million. Kennedy said incorrectly in a statement that these vaccines “fail to protect effectively from upper respiratory infections such as Covid and influenza.” Instead, HHS converts funding to an old vaccine platform known as “Kamel Virus” vaccines.

Despite the reaction of the reverse administration against the Al -Mersal Rana vaccines, Bansel said it was “encouraging from the dialogue” that the company had with the Food and Drug Administration. In addition to obtaining updated Covid shots, albeit with restrictions, Moderna also obtained an expanded approval this year for its respiratory virus, or RSV, the vaccine to include adults between the ages of 18 and 59 who are at risk of developing the disease. The vaccine was initially approved in May 2024 for adults between the ages of 60 years and over.

“I think many people in January, including my team, were very worried that we might not get these approvals,” Bansel said.

Management campaign has not yet extended our research to cancer, and Moderna has evolved many of the treatments against cancer, including personal cancer vaccines. The company has 45 programs related to cancer in the pipeline and said it expects 10 approvals for the FDA in the next three years. “We use the same technology exactly to move from infectious diseases to cancer,” Bansel said.

He also took charges that Covid vaccines have not been tested well. “I don’t think there was a more lesson for effectiveness and safety in the history of vaccines,” he said. “With regard to the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, there have been studies in millions of people literally in the real world.”