US Senate Democrats demand Kennedy explain canceling bird flu vaccine contract

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By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Democrats demanded on Wednesday Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. make public the reviews on which his department said it based its decision to cancel a contract for developing a bird flu vaccine.

President Donald Trump’s administration last month canceled a $590-million contract awarded to Moderna in January by outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans, as well as the right to purchase shots.

“This is a grievous mistake that threatens to leave the country unprepared for what experts fear might be the next pandemic – and there appears to be no rationale for this decision other than your ill-informed and dangerous war on vaccines,” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

The cancellation endangers American lives and will likely contribute to a 20% rise in the price of eggs this year, they wrote to Kennedy, who has a long history of questioning the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services at the time said the contract was canceled after a comprehensive internal review determined the project did not meet the scientific standards or safety expectations required for continued federal investment.

Warren and Duckworth demanded Kennedy make the review public, alongside a similar review the department cited when it cut funding of a $258-million program researching an HIV vaccine. They also asked for a detailed description of how the department decided to end the contracts, and a staff briefing.

“You have failed to justify either of these moves to cripple vaccine research,” Warren and Duckworth wrote. “Furthermore, these decisions appear to be part of your larger, unfounded vendetta against mRNA technology.”

HHS on Wednesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Kennedy named eight members last week to serve on a panel of vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including some who have advocated against vaccines, days after abruptly firing all 17 members who had been serving on the independent committee of experts.

Several of his appointees specifically oppose the mRNA vaccine technology used in some of the newest immunizations such as the COVID-19 vaccine, including by Moderna.

(Reporting by Ahmed AbouleneinEditing by Rod Nickel and Chizu Nomiyama )