Restore funding for critical vaccine and infectious disease research!
Dear MoveOn member,
Right now, the United States is facing one of the worst measles outbreaks in over a decade. The disease was considered to be eliminated in 2000, and its resurgence marks a devastating blow to public health.1
More than 250 measles cases have already been reported across multiple states this year. Recently, newborn babies as young as 3 days old at the time were treated with antibody injections after they were exposed to the highly contagious virus at the Texas hospital where they were born.2 And just weeks ago, a child died of measles complications—the first death from the disease in this country in 10 years.3
Yet, in the middle of this national public health crisis, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is canceling dozens of grants focused on understanding vaccine hesitancy and improving vaccination rates across the country.4 Will you sign the petition calling on the NIH to restore these lifesaving grants?
The White House also slashed grants connected to COVID-19 research, with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calling it a "non-existent pandemic" despite continued hospitalizations and deaths across the country.5,6 Grants that were cut include ones meant to improve vaccines for COVID-19 and similar viruses, including yellow fever and Zika, as well as grants for researching long COVID.7
These now-canceled grants represent millions of dollars in lost funding for projects aimed at improving vaccine access and educating communities.8 This research is essential to ensuring families have the tools and resources they need to make informed health decisions, especially during outbreaks like the one we’re seeing now.
This is all happening while HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making dangerous and unsubstantiated claims about treating measles during the outbreak.9
As vaccine misinformation spreads, threatening our communities and the most vulnerable living within them, the NIH needs to reinstate these critical grants for vaccine hesitancy research.
These grants funded critical work in communities across the country, studying how to fight misinformation, address parents' fears, and generally strengthen trust in long-established vaccines. The research also gives health care providers the tools they need to help increase vaccination rates, protect children, and curb preventable diseases.
Cutting this funding now, as measles spreads and anti-vaccine misinformation rises, is unacceptable.
Vaccine-preventable diseases are resurging, and an anti-science White House is gaining ground. Without this research, we're losing tools we need to protect our children and communities.
Tell the NIH: Reinstate vaccine research grants to protect public health and safety.
Thanks for all you do.
–Laura Packard, Voices of Health Care Action
Sources:
1. "Measles is back — and more dangerous than you think. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself." Vox, March 18, 2025
https://www.vox.com/health/404709/measles-outbreak-cdc-vaccine-booster-recommendations
2. "Newborns exposed to measles in Texas hospital," NBC News, March 14, 2025
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/texas-measles-outbreak-hospital-newborn-babies-exposed-rcna196519
3. "Measles outbreak spreads as 250 cases reported across multiple states," The Guardian, March 13, 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/13/measles-outbreak-spread
4. "Her research grant mentioned 'hesitancy.' Now her funding is gone." The Washington Post, March 15, 2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/15/vaccine-hesitancy-nih-grant-money-canceled-shingles/
5. "Saying 'pandemic is over,' NIH starts cutting COVID-19 research," Science, March 25, 2025
https://www.science.org/content/article/saying-pandemic-over-nih-institute-starts-cutting-covid-19-research
6. "COVID-19 in 2025: 'A Constant Threat, but a Manageable One,'" Boston University, March 8, 2025
https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2025/covid-19-in-2025-a-constant-threat-but-a-manageable-one/
7. "Saying 'pandemic is over,' NIH starts cutting COVID-19 research," Science, March 25, 2025
https://www.science.org/content/article/saying-pandemic-over-nih-institute-starts-cutting-covid-19-research
8. "NIH cuts funding for vaccine-hesitancy research. mRNA research may be next," NPR, March 12, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325863/nih-trump-vaccine-hesitancy-mrna-research
9. "Amid a growing measles outbreak, doctors worry RFK Jr. is sending the wrong message," NPR, March 7, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/07/nx-s1-5320352/measles-rfk-west-texas-outbreak
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