Vaccine Policy Failure Is a National Security Risk

That is why abandoning mRNA research is such a dangerous mistake. Speed matters in a pandemic, and mRNA technology allows scientists to design, test, and update vaccines far faster than older platforms. If we weaken that capability now, we will lose time we cannot recover later. In a fast-moving outbreak, months of delay would cause countless deaths, deeper economic disruption, and a much longer and more difficult road to recovery.

We know what must be done to protect our country from extremely contagious diseases like measles, COVID, and potentially, bird flu. We must restore urgent national leadership on vaccination, rebuild BARDA’s investments in rapid-response mRNA vaccine technology, and treat public health preparedness as a matter of national security, not partisan ideology.

If we fail to take these actions, the current measles outbreak will only be the beginning. It will be a warning we ignored before bird flu or another deadly virus puts America through an even more devastating pandemic.