Trump Administration Ignores The Experts As It Cancels $500 Million For Vaccines
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.5 • 24.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: political correspondent Ashley Lopez, health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, |
| 0:05.1 | working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems. |
| 0:11.9 | More information is at walton family foundation.org. |
| 0:15.8 | This is Kara in Cordelaine, Idaho. |
| 0:18.7 | I'm getting ready to go out and pick raspberries for my raspberry bushes in the backyard. |
| 0:24.9 | This podcast was recorded at... |
| 0:27.8 | 12.38 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, August 8th, 2025. |
| 0:32.5 | Things may have changed since you heard this, |
| 0:35.0 | but I'll be enjoying either raspberries and cream or raspberry crisp |
| 0:40.2 | or even raspberry sorbet. Okay, here's the show. Well, you know what they say? When you pick |
| 0:50.6 | raspberries, you listen to the Imperial Politics podcast. Do they say that? Yep. I will say, like, I know gardening is something that I eventually want to get into, but anything in a Bush, I'm just afraid something's going to get me when I'm sticking my hand in there. Yeah. Yeah, me. I'm a city kid. I don't know. I think like digging around in the dirt. Anyways. All right. Hey there. It's the NPR politics podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover |
| 1:12.5 | politics. I'm Domenica Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And NPR health policy |
| 1:17.6 | correspondent, Selena, Simmons-Duffin is here as well. Hi, Selena. Hello. And this week, |
| 1:23.4 | the Trump administration canceled roughly $500 million in contracts to develop MRNA vaccines. |
| 1:29.8 | Today on the podcast, we're talking about how this move follows a pattern of the administration, |
| 1:34.7 | ignoring the advice of subject matter experts. |
| 1:37.1 | Selena, let's start with you. |
| 1:38.2 | What was the reason that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave for canceling these contracts in the first place? |
| 1:44.3 | Well, you know, the context here is that Kennedy has built his reputation and fortune advocating |
| 1:49.4 | against vaccines. You know, he sued drug makers and regulators. In particular, when it comes to |
| 1:55.1 | the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, he's called them a crime against humanity. So this week, he posted a video |
| 2:03.5 | explaining the decision, and he simply said he had reviewed the evidence and determined that |
... |
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