This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Tuesday, August 12th.

I'm Matt Katz, former reporter here at WNYC.

I'm now running a news and culture podcast in Philadelphia called

CityCast Philly, and I'm filling in for Brian today. Last week, the Trump administration

announced it will cut funding to MRNA vaccine development, totaling $500 million that researchers

get from the federal government. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said this would end 22 contracts to develop

vaccines to fight COVID-19 and the bird flu, among other respiratory viruses.

Many health care professionals and scientists have denounced this move, and our next guest

joins that criticism. He calls this move, quote,

the most dangerous public health decision he's ever seen, ever made by a government body.

Joining us now is Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research

and Policy, known as Sidrap, at the University of Minnesota, and the director of the

Vaccine Integrity Project. He's also the co-author of the forthcoming book, The Big One,

How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics. Dr. Osterholm, welcome at WNYC.

Thank you. It's great to be with you. I appreciate you coming on and walking through this major announcement that just came out days ago.

So I love an explanation to start.

MRNA vaccines have been studied for years, but it wasn't until the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine

that the broader public really became familiar with the technology.

Can you refresh our memories here? What makes an MRNA vaccine different from the others?

And why was it used to quickly develop the COVID-19 vaccine?

Well, first of all, as you noted, the MRNA technology has actually been in the research phase

...