Researchers are learning the Trump administration axed their work to
improve vaccination
[March 12, 2025]
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is canceling studies about
ways to improve vaccine trust and access, a move that comes in the midst
of a large measles outbreak fueled by unvaccinated children.
Researchers with grants from the National Institutes of Health to study
why some people have questions or fears about vaccines and how to help
those who want to be vaccinated overcome barriers are getting letters
canceling their projects.
The step — first reported by The Washington Post, which cited dozens of
expected cancellations — is highly unusual, as entire swaths of research
typically aren’t ended mid-stream.
“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that
focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to
be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and
commitment,” say NIH letters sent to two researchers with different
grants.
“It’s really concerning,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy
of Pediatrics, who viewed and read aloud from two letters other
scientists had received, noting the claim that the research doesn't
benefit people or improve quality of life.
"That's inaccurate. Vaccines clearly save lives, there’s no question
about the science of that,” O’Leary said. Better understanding what
parents want to learn from their pediatrician – or adults’ questions
about their own shots -- is “really about improving care and not just
necessarily about just the vaccination rates.”
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This photo provided by the National Institutes of Health shows the
James H. Shannon Building on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., in
2015. (Lydia Polimeni/NIH via AP)
 “You can’t say you’re for vaccine
safety and not study how people think about vaccines,” added Dr.
Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association.
Some of the canceled grants are a type that help fund the salaries
of promising young researchers, whose careers may be threatened,
O’Leary said.
It’s the latest move against vaccines since Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
became the nation’s health secretary, directing the agency that
oversees the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Food and Drug Administration. Kennedy has long criticized vaccines
and since taking the new post has vowed to investigate the childhood
vaccine schedule — shots that prevent measles, polio and other
dangerous diseases — and CDC and FDA meetings of independent vaccine
advisers have been postponed or canceled.
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