Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. I'm the Navaz is away. On the news hour tonight,

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulls hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the kinds of vaccines that were critical during the COVID pandemic.

The standoff over redistricting in Texas continues as Republicans escalate their threats against absent Democrats. And Judy Woodruff explores whether artificial intelligence could help Americans find common ground. We probably should be judging ideas on their merit, not who said them.

Welcome to the News Hour. Many public health experts and scientists say they are stunned by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest decision to cancel nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding for future vaccine development.

The latest move comes after the Trump administration already withdrew a multi-million dollar contract with the biotech company, Moderna,

to develop a bird flu vaccine using what's known as MRNA technology.

MRNA vaccines work by using a single strand of genetic code to create a fragment of a virus that sets off the body's immune response.

The technology was central in the battle against COVID and can be

developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. But anti-vaccine communities and skeptics don't

trust its safety, and that includes Secretary Kennedy who canceled more than 20 contracts.

For more on the implications of all this, we're joined by Michael Osterholm.

He's the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

He's also the co-author of the book The Big One, How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics, which will be out in early September.

Thanks for being with us.

Thanks, Joe.

So I want to start with your

overall reaction to this. How critical is MRNA technology? And what does the loss of this

funding mean for a future vaccine development? Well, let me just set the stage. I've been in this

business for over 50 years on the front lines of public health. I have served seven different

presidential administrations advising them, and I've been through several pandemics. And I can say

unequivocally that this was the most dangerous public health decision I've ever seen made by a

government body. It's really a very, very significant challenge for us.

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