HHS Scraps Moderna’s $700 Million Bird Flu Vaccine Program
Meanwhile, the US bird flu cases among poultry has declined, due to Trump administration focus on enhanced biosecurity measures and targeted containment strategies.
After the U.S. Senate report on the potential adverse effects of the mRNA vaccines for Covid, it is little wonder Americans have a substantial distrust of the new products being pushed by Big Pharma.
Clearly, the Trump administration is following up on its Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) promises and is cutting fiscal ties to pharmaceutical firms.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has now canceled more than $700 million in funding and contracts previously awarded to Moderna for the late-stage development of its mRNA-based bird flu (H5N1) vaccine for humans.
The Trump administration has canceled a contract awarded to Moderna (MRNA.O)for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans, as well as the right to purchase shots, the drugmaker announced on Wednesday.
Shares of Moderna were flat in after-market trading.
Moderna in January was awarded $590 million by the Biden administration to advance the development of its bird flu vaccine, and support the expansion of clinical studies for up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza
This was in addition to $176 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last year to complete the late-stage development and testing of a pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccine against the H5N1 avian influenza.
Keep in mind that the worst effects in the 70 humans in this country that contracted the illness (either through contact with fluids from infected poultry or cows) were pink eye and a nasty cold.
Cancellation of the nearly billion dollar contract for a risky mRNA vaccine is good news. Moderna had 300 people in a bird flu vaccine trial, yet there have only been 70 cases of bird flu in America! It’s almost as if they want to cause more bird flu.https://t.co/gNmL7iqqO9 pic.twitter.com/CBhPvqqU54
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 29, 2025
Intriguingly, the contract was canceled, in part, because of ethical concerns.
Andrew Nixon, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said: “After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable.”
Moderna said it would explore alternatives for developing the vaccines covered by the contract, which were to be designed for several types of flu viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic.
Nixon also referenced safety concerns in the official explanation as to why the contract was terminated, which seemed to hearken back to what the Senate report revealed about hiding information from the public about mRNA vaccines.
In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the decision was made after a “rigorous review.”
“This is not simply about efficacy — it’s about safety, integrity, and trust,” Nixon said.
“The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.”
HHS has cancelled a $750M contract to Moderna, which was pushed through during Biden’s final week in office, for production of mRNA vaccines for bird flu.
They concluded that the vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable. pic.twitter.com/r03NgesVYf
— Americat 🇺🇸 (@catmurphy209) May 29, 2025
As a reminder, under the Biden administration, Moderna received a $176 million base award in July 2024 for development of an H5N1 vaccine, followed by a $590 million contract in January 2025 (as Biden was exiting the Oval Office) to support late-stage clinical trials and expand pandemic flu vaccine development.
Speaking of bird flu, a review of the current news indicates that one of the largest egg producers was severely hit with an outbreak recently.
A West Valley farm and one of the largest egg producers in the U.S. confirmed on Friday that it has lost nearly its entire chicken population in Arizona due to bird flu and will be forced to reduce staff.
Hickman’s Family Farms president and CEO Glenn Hickman made the announcement during a news conference on Friday afternoon.
…He says hens at one of the farms began showing symptoms two weeks ago. Swabs were sent to the University of Arizona for analysis, and bird flu was detected.
“We shut down all traffic between farms and all personnel; everything we possibly could do to isolate that farm, and it didn’t work,” Hickman explained. “We’ve been slowly losing the other three farms plus our replacement pullet flock over the past two weeks.”
However, there is good news. Thanks to the Trump administration allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take the lead on the response, there has been an overall decline in the number of cases.
In recent months, the United States has seen a notable decline in avian influenza (bird flu) cases among poultry, thanks in part to enhanced biosecurity measures and targeted containment strategies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported a significant drop in outbreaks across commercial egg-laying operations, particularly in the Midwest and South, where the virus had previously devastated flocks and disrupted the egg supply chain.
…Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins emphasized a new strategy that prioritizes enhanced farm-level biosecurity and targeted medication over mass culling. “We’re moving away from reactive measures and toward proactive resilience,” Rollins said during a recent roundtable with poultry industry leaders in Texas.
Hopefully, this policy success will continue.
Truly, it would be helpful if scientists did not gain-of-function known pathogens and then release them into the wild…either accidentally or intentionally.
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Comments
Anyone that gets a shot of the untested mRNA gene therapy is crazy. If they are forcing their healthy kids to get one the are guilty of child abuse
mRNA crap IS NOT A VACCINE, and would not have been legally allowed to be labeled a vaccine until Fauci changed the definition.
It’s exactly crap like this that leads to so-called ‘vaccine hesitancy’, when they try to push this mRNA crap for diseases that ARE NOT particularly dangerous to humans and have only actually infected an infinitesimally small amount of the population.
It’s really gene therapy at best and gene manipulation at worst, but they dare not call it that.
Please explain how it is gene therapy and manipulation,
Horse’s mouth:
mRNA: Vaccine or Gene Therapy? The Safety Regulatory Issues
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10342157/
“The mode of action of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines should classify them as gene therapy products (GTPs), but they have been excluded by regulatory agencies.”
After some reading I believe whether it is gene therapy or not is debatable. While mRNA is postulated as a delivery vehicle for regulatory and normal unmutated native proteins this in not how it is used in the “vaccine” where it delivers a foreign protein to make an antigen to stimulate the immune system. As such I wouldn’t consider it gene therapy.
I don’t know about the Gene Therapy side. I do know the Scientist who invented mRNA treatments said early during COVID that mRNA was not appropriate since it is a Treatment mechanism and not a vaccine therapy.
You no doubt are talking about Robert Malone. He is someone who did early work on protein translation after mRNA intake by cells. He didn’t invent MRNA treatment. If he said that mRNA is not appropriate for vaccines that would be interesting since he promotes himself as the inventor of mRNA vaccines.
It is a vaccine. It is designed specifically to sensitize the host immune system to a foreign antigen. It is the very definition of a vaccine even though it differs from previous vaccines in how it delivers its antigen.
Whether the delivery mechanism which is new and novel was tested sufficiently, and whether it was needed and for whom are completely different and rational questions to ask.
It’s the definition of a vaccine NOW, only because they changed the definition.
Pre-2019, to be called a vaccine, a substance had to prevent the patient from contracting a disease, or at the very least prevent him from passing it on to others. This substance does neither.
This is an interesting article
https://www.sciencealert.com/few-vaccines-actually-prevent-infection-here-s-why-that-s-not-a-problem-with-covid-19
Another one from the CDC which may will not accept.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/basics/explaining-how-vaccines-work.html
I can’t vouch for the first site. Basically it says that not all diseases provide 100% immunity. Some still allow infection and retransmission. Some also allow low level sickness.
Bottom line is you want to narrowly define what a vaccine is and how it works. Okay. You are welcome to do that. I’m satisified with the broader explanation. What I want is more investigation into the mRNA technique than has been done, especially the delivery container that is being used. Also are there issues as to which cells absorb the mRNA and produce the spike protein as compared to what would occur with other more traditional vaccination methods.
Olinser et al (especially ztakddot):
The Wayback Machine is very helpful with this. Find the CDC site where they define what a “vaccine” is and how it works, copy that URL into the Wayback Machine, and with a few clicks you can see when and how it has changed in recent years.
And yes, it has changed. A “vaccine” used to keep a person from getting sick or spreading the disease, but that is no longer required.
If reducing the severity of symptoms is all it takes, NyQuil is now a flu vaccine.
I don’t have a problem with the changed definition. I have a problem with the amount of research done on the delivery techniques and the consequences of them.
We’ll forget the last line of your comment. It’s funny but not accurate.
Unfortunately it is not undertested. mRNA technology was tested on a good chunk of the US population and the population of many other countries. What we in the public at least don’t have are the full consequences of that testing.
But we have a couple hundred million test subjects in the U.S., so we should find out the full consequences as they develop. All good, right?
While mRNA technology has been around for a while, but to my (admittedly limited) knowledge COVID was the first time anyone tried to use it to rapid-develop an inoculation for humans. For that purpose it is under-tested.
Also, the reason drug testing usually takes years is specifically to discover the long-term effects. In this regard, too, the COVID mRNA shots were under-tested; they were rushed out within months, barely enough time for complete rounds of testing in rats, let alone humans.
We’re saying the same thing actually. I was being sarcastic.
I agree that many aspects of the technology are under tested. Hindsight reveals additional questions that also require answering before it is applied again.
The chickens in the photo were all Moderna test subjects.
As you can see, one of them developed satyriasis.
In recent months, the United States has seen a notable decline in avian influenza (bird flu) cases among poultry, thanks in part to enhanced biosecurity measures and targeted containment strategies.
Wait….
You mean, there are things we can do to contain outbreaks and limit how many contract a virus that DON’T require “social distancing”, face masks, or vaccine mandates?
Then what was all the hysteria about?
lOL, you read my mind.
Well we killed all the infected chickens and then some. Same policy couldn’t be used on humans. Well chinese would probably be willing to kill a 100M to stop the spread of a disease.
Add to your schadenfreude file: Former Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman, who was up to his armpits in election chicanery during the 2020 election (and probably others), just lost 95% of his firm’s egg-laying birds to the virus.
This bird flu is clearly zoonotic as the virus does not do well (neither very transmissible or virulent) in humans. Contrast that to the COVID virus which in the initial stages was both highly transmissible and virulent – a good indication that the COVID virus was not directly zoonotic and therefore juiced up in the lab.