inspiriences

The Trump administration's unprecedented $500 million grant for a broadly protective flu shot has confounded vaccine and pandemic preparedness experts, who said the project was in its early stages, relied on old technology, and was just one of more than 200 such efforts. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted the money from a pandemic preparedness fund to a vaccine development program led by two scientists whom the administration recently named to senior positions at the NIH. While some experts were pleased that Kennedy had supported any vaccine project, they said the May 1 announcement contravened sound scientific policy, appeared arbitrary, and raised the kinds of questions about conflicts of interest that have dogged many of President Donald Trump's actions. Focusing vast resources on a single vaccine candidate "is a little like going to the Kentucky Derby and putting all your money on one horse," said William Schaffner, MD, a Vander...