For those eager for news about potential medical breakthroughs, there have been some encouraging headlines lately. Last month, for example, NBC News reported on an mRNA pancreatic cancer vaccine that’s shown promise in an early trial. More research is needed, but as the report added, “nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.”

Less than a month later, the public received another round of good news directly related to mRNA research. NBC News also reported last week:

Messenger RNA technology, or mRNA, is widely seen as a promising way to improve the effectiveness of flu shots, partly because it can be updated more quickly to match circulating strains.

New results published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine gave more protection against illness than the standard flu shot in a Phase 3 clinical trial.

The report quoted Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law San Francisco, who said, “These are strong results, and would likely make it hard for the FDA to refuse in a way that withstands arbitrary and capricious review.”

The reference to the Food and Drug Administration was of particular interest because Donald Trump’s FDA initially rejected Moderna’s original submission earlier this year.

And therein lies the larger point: The more mRNA research offers new promise, the more we’re reminded that the incumbent Republican administration is overtly hostile to that research, for reasons that don’t make sense — and will come with consequences.

A year ago this week, The New York Times reported, “To scientists who study it, mRNA is a miracle molecule. The vaccines that harnessed it against Covid saved an estimated 20 million lives, a rapid development that was recognized with a Nobel Prize. Clinical trials show mRNA-based vaccines increasing survival in patients with pancreatic and other deadly cancers. Biotechnology companies are investing in the promise of mRNA therapies to treat and even cure a host of genetic and chronic diseases, including Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.”

In his first term, even the president himself celebrated mRNA-based coronavirus vaccines, referring to them as a “modern-day miracle.”

And yet last summer, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the administration’s decision to terminate contracts to develop mRNA vaccines and wind down additional federal investments in mRNA technology.

Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations, told The Associated Press, “I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business.”

Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as the surgeon general during Trump’s first term, added via social media, “I’ve tried to be objective & non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions — but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives.”

The president tried to defend the shift, but he failed. Kennedy tried, too, and he fared about as well. When Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s handpicked director of the National Institutes of Health and acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post making his best case, it collapsed rather quickly.

The more the public is confronted with evidence of what’s possible with mRNA vaccines, the more we’re reminded of how drastic a mistake the administration made and why it remains incumbent on Team Trump to reverse course.

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