The Department of Health and Human Services last month quietly announced its intention to fund the development of vaccines against two viruses it considers “material threats to national health security.”
It’s a sign that even as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fires the country’s top vaccine committee and backs cuts to infectious disease research, the department is still aware of the dangers a hobbled public health infrastructure would pose to U.S. biosecurity.
The pre-solicitation notice for the two vaccines was posted to a government contracting website on June 27. It came from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, an HHS center that partners with the biomedical industry to develop bioterrorism countermeasures. (BARDA is housed within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which Kennedy announced would be reshuffled into the Administration for a Healthy America, although the status of the secretary’s planned department reorganization is hazy.)