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.

Why is it important to have MRNA vaccines? Where else do they show promise?

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