Zealous anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reviving a long-defunct federal vaccine panel that anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy, have long sought and health experts fear will be used to dismantle evidence-based recommendations for life-saving childhood shots.

HHS is slashing hundreds of millions in funding for mRNA vaccines and infectious disease treatments, but leaving the door open to mRNA therapies for cancer and genetic conditions.

Vaccines saved 154 million lives. But as fear of disease fades, so does protection – raising the chilling prospect of a return to the pre-vaccine era.

This was one in a continuing line of moves that have put Kennedy's vaccine skepticism into public policy, though scientists say the vaccines are safe.

The Nobel Prize-winning technology underpinning COVID-19 vaccines is also fueling a host of biotechs developing treatments for cancers, cystic fibrosis, and rare diseases.

The top public health officials during Trump's first term praised mRNA vaccines. In the second term, officials seem to be retreating from them.

Although it has been largely phased out of U.S. vaccines, thimerosal has long been targeted by anti-vaccine advocates.