MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Trump administration has announced a flurry of big changes involving vaccines these last few days. The moves have triggered alarm and outrage among many public health experts, and they have raised fears and questions among many regular people. NPR health correspondent - and lovely regular person - Rob Stein is here to bring us up to date. Hi, Rob.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Hey there, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, start with COVID-19. Over the past week or so, the administration suddenly announced two big changes that could restrict access to COVID shots. What were they?
STEIN: Yeah, it's been a real whirlwind. First, last week, federal health officials imposed new requirements on the COVID vaccines. They're demanding that vaccine companies conduct big new studies to, once again, prove the vaccines are safe and still effective. That will likely make it harder, if not impossible, for anyone to get the shots, except for people who are at least 65 or have other health issues.
KELLY: At least 65 or other health issues.
STEIN: Yeah.
KELLY: OK, that's one. What's the second big change?
STEIN: Then this week, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped another bombshell. He removed the blanket recommendations that healthy children and healthy pregnant women routinely get immunized against COVID, again, likely making it much more difficult for healthy children and healthy pregnant women to get the shots. Federal officials argue both moves make sense at this point in the pandemic, you know, given how much immunity everybody has. And they argue they're prudent, given what they say are ongoing questions about the safety of the shots, especially the mRNA vaccines.
But, you know, I've been talking to lots of regular people who are pretty upset by these moves because they still really want to get the shots and to public health and infectious disease experts who are, you know, outraged. They say billions of people have gotten the vaccines, proving they're safe and effective. Here's Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
ASHISH JHA: The cumulative effect here is a lot less access to vaccines, just making it much harder for Americans to get vaccinated. And so I'm pretty worried about where we are.
KELLY: Rob, that's the COVID vaccines. But then the Trump administration announced another decision involving a different kind of mRNA vaccine. What do we know about that?
STEIN: Yeah, the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that the government had canceled a $766 million contract to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause the next pandemic, including the bird flu virus. Instead, the government will use the money for other vaccine technologies, but many experts consider those technologies to be outdated.
KELLY: And what is the broader concern here?
STEIN: Well, you know, these are just the latest steps that Kennedy has taken that affect vaccines, especially the mRNA vaccines. So many public health experts worry that this is part of an overall strategy to just undermine public confidence and the use of the vaccines. They point to the measles outbreak that's currently underway and upticks and other childhood diseases like, you know, whooping cough, as evidence of the impact we're already seeing. Here's Dr. Paul Offit from the University of Pennsylvania.
PAUL OFFIT: It's a war on vaccines. It's war on children. And I think that RFK Jr. is exactly what he has been for the last 20 years, which is a virulent anti-vaccine activist, science denialist and conspiracy theorist.
STEIN: Now, I reached out to the federal government about all this but never heard back. But I should say that some outside experts I talked to do agree with the government's rationale for at least some of these decisions.
KELLY: NPR health correspondent Rob Stein, thanks.
STEIN: You bet, Mary Louise. And you're a lovely person yourself.
KELLY: (Laughter) Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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