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Bethesda, MD, U.S.: Exterior view of the main building of the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH ...
More funds most biomedical research in the U.S. It is cutting back, however, on funding of studies on vaccine hesitancy.
A measles outbreak that began a few months ago in Texas has risen to nearly 500 cases across multiple states. At the same time, the National Institutes of Health says it will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase acceptance of vaccines, as this does not “align with NIH funding priorities.” The agency goes on to state that "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 no longer effectuates agency priorities.
" The canceling of grants by NIH not only targets vaccine hesitancy to research that involves certain vaccines and just mentions hesitancy and uptake in passing. Texas and New Mexico reported a 20% increase in the number of measles cases between Tuesday and Friday of last week. This spike over just a three-day period indicates the severity of the current upsurge.
The vast majority of cases are occurring in individuals who haven’t been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. Just three months into 2025, the United States has recorded the most measles cases in a single year since a 2019 wave and is on pace to be the largest number of cases in more than 30 years. As with previous upticks in recent years, vaccine hesitancy has been a major factor.
In one of the Texas counties impacted, vaccination rates stand at 82% for measles, Texas. For successful containment of measles, herd immunity levels need to be at or above 95% in order to control the spread of the deadly disease. Similar increases are happening with another vaccine-preventable illness, whooping cough, which is hitting Louisiana hard.
The state is seeing an alarming rise in cases, with the state’s Department of Health reporting two infant deaths within the last six months. These are the first such fatalities since 2018. So when Science reported last month that the NIH is abruptly terminating dozens of research grants on vaccine hesitancy and how to encourage uptake it, this caught the attention of public health experts.
In particular, the timing of the new NIH policy is concerning, as Forbes’ senior contributor, Omar Awan, explains. And, as was noted in a publication posted last month by the Journal of the American Medical Association, there are considerable hurdles facing doctors who wish to combat vaccine hesitancy. The article cites clinical experts who say it’s urgent to counter misinformation and explain to the public the benefits and risks of vaccines and the illnesses being protected against.
For this purpose, research is vital with respect to the causes of vaccine hesitancy. But in light of the shift in NIH policy, few if any government-funded studies on how to effectively address the problem will be forthcoming. The change at NIH could reflect the vaccine-skeptic stance taken by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., as well as his views on “medical freedom.” He has issued mixed messages on how best to counter the ongoing measles outbreak.
In an opinion piece on the matter, he suggested parents have their children vaccinated against measles while at the same time saying that it was strictly up to parents whether to immunize. Furthermore, he promoted the idea that natural immunity is better that the immunity conferred by vaccines, something which experts dispute. And then, several days later, RFK Jr.
advocated for the use of vitamin A, which doctors say can help someone who’s contracted the disease but does nothing to prevent it. In addition, taking vitamin A in too large doses can be toxic, At Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, several children showed signs in March of liver problems after ingesting too much vitamin A. Reinforcing the notion that unconventional views on vaccines are at the heart of changes in priorities within HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now wants to do a large study examining a potential link between autism and the MMR vaccine, under the direction of David Grier, a known vaccine skeptic.
The NIH is also cutting back on funding mRNA vaccine research, which broadens the scope beyond COVID-19. Scientists are making use of the mRNA platform to explore the possibility of an HIV vaccine as well as therapeutics across multiple diseases areas, including certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. The long list of terminated grants at HHS includes ones related to clinical development of mRNA vaccines, vaccine hesitancy and uptake of vaccinations.
This may reflect an apparent skepticism regarding the effectiveness of mRNA-based products. Despite their ability to reduce disease severity, COVID-19 vaccines proved less able to curb transmission of the coronavirus. Perhaps another contributing factor was the imposition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates during the pandemic, which, critics argued, infringed on people’s autonomy.
Medical freedom advocates adhere to a libertarian philosophy in which the government may not violate a person’s right to make decisions. Nonetheless, there’s a libertarian case to be made for compulsory vaccinations, at least in some instances, such as measles. Namely, a person’s right to be free of state interference is limited by the undue harms certain behaviors could cause others.
The federal government’s defunding of research that doesn’t fit its priorities is even impacting work that’s not about vaccine hesitancy but merely mentions words or phrases that trigger NIH actions to cancel funding. Agencies are systematically purging the use of language that includes terms such as “vaccines” and “hesitancy,” whether together in one phrase or not. This can even impact researchers who aren’t examining vaccine hesitancy.
The Washington Post reported that a professor, Nisha Acharya, who had used the word “hesitancy” once in a synopsis of her research project on the Shingles vaccine and the word “uptake” twice, learned last month that her five-year grant had been canceled, effective immediately. Acharya said she “never would have dreamed that this could happen to me, but it just did. I am a professor and ophthalmologist who specializes in infection and inflammation affecting the eyes.
My research group has been studying how the shingles vaccine impacts shingles in the eye using real-world data. We have no agenda. We just want to understand the safety and effectiveness of this relatively new vaccine.
Now we can’t continue this work.”.
