By Arthur Allen, KFF Health News

National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research.

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The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and AIDS, and also cancer. It was deployed in the development of covid-19 vaccines credited with saving 3 million lives in the U.S. alone — an accomplishment President Donald Trump bragged about in his first term.

A scientist at a biomedical research center in Philadelphia wrote to a colleague, in an email reviewed by KFF Health News, that a project officer at NIH had “flagged our pending grant as having an mRNA vaccine component.”

“It’s still unclear whether mRNA vaccine grants will be canceled,” the scientist added.

NIH officials also told a senior NIH-funded vaccine scientist in New York state, who does not conduct mRNA vaccine research but described its efficacy in previous grant applications, that all references to mRNA vaccines should be scrubbed from future applications.

Scientists relayed their experiences on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retaliation by the Trump administration.

A senior official at the National Cancer Institute confirmed that NIH acting Director Matthew Memoli sent an email across the NIH instructing that any grants, contracts, or collaborations involving mRNA vaccines be reported up the chain to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House.

Memoli sent a similar message ahead of the agency canceling other research, such as studies of vaccine hesitancy.

Memoli’s email on that topic bluntly stated that NIH was not interested in learning why people shun vaccines or in exploring ways to “improve vaccine interest and commitment.”

The National Cancer Institute official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that “it is reasonable to assume mRNA vaccine work is next.”

The official said a similar memo also went out regarding NIH-funded work in South Africa, which the White House has targeted over false claims that the country’s government is persecuting white people. More recently, another one went out regarding all global research collaborations, the official said.

Spokespeople for the White House, HHS, and the NIH did not respond to requests for comment.

The NIH, whose latest annual budget was $47 billion, is one of the world’s most critical sources of funding for basic biomedical research. Its mission and programs are under unprecedented scrutiny from Trump’s White House and the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led agency created by a Trump executive order that has directed federal agencies to prepare for widespread layoffs.

The NIH is funding at least 130 studies involving the mRNA technology in covid vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that have been administered to billions of people worldwide.

A former government official familiar with internal discussions said that the Trump administration intends to cut some grants for mRNA vaccine research but that the timing is unclear. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships with the administration.

Political conservatives in the U.S. have promulgated conspiracy theories, unsupported by scientific evidence, that the shots and their relatively new technology are dangerous. This has undermined public support for covid vaccinations and mRNA research.

“There will not be any research funded by NIH on mRNA vaccines,” the scientist in New York said in an interview. “MAGA people are convinced that these vaccines have killed and maimed tens of thousands of people. It’s not true, but they believe that.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of other vaccine-related studies are in limbo. Kawsar Talaat, a vaccine researcher at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, has been waiting since the fall for money needed to recruit subjects for a study of an antidiarrheal vaccine.

“NIH approved our funding,” she said, “and now we’re waiting, and we don’t know if it’s going forward or going to be killed.”

The scientist in Philadelphia signaled that he believes Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, is responsible for the NIH’s turn against mRNA research.

“Kennedy’s war on vaccines has started,” the scientist told his colleague.

The scientist in New York said that it was “ridiculous” to remove mRNA language from the grant applications. But “if my grant is rejected for any reason,” the scientist said, “people in my lab will lose their jobs.”

“I’ve worked with some of them for 20 years,” the scientist added. “They have children and families. There is a real climate of fear in academia about this now, especially among vaccine scientists.”

“My grant does not involve a request for funds to conduct mRNA vaccine experiments,” the scientist said, “so my principal concern was to avoid word-search flags that, at minimum, would lead to delays in any funding.”

While tenured research professors at universities generally receive a salary from their institution, the staffers who work in their labs and offices are often paid through NIH grants. The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was given to two scientists for developing mRNA vaccines, through work that relied on pharmaceutical companies and on NIH scientists working under infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci.

According to Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the chamber’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Kennedy promised during his Senate confirmation process that he would protect “the public health benefit of vaccination” and “work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems.”

Cassidy, a physician, had expressed reservations about confirming Kennedy to the HHS post and challenged his anti-vaccine views during a confirmation hearing. He ended up voting for him, he said, because Kennedy had agreed to work closely with Cassidy and his committee.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 13: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before Kennedy is sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Oval Office at the White House on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kennedy, who faced criticism for his past comments on vaccine, was confirmed by the Senate 52 to 48. Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was the only Republican to vote against him. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

However, Kennedy has faced scrutiny in his first weeks in office for his handling of a large measles outbreak among mostly unvaccinated people in Texas that has led to the death of a child, the first U.S. measles death in more than a decade. A patient who tested positive for measles died in New Mexico, but the cause hasn’t been confirmed. Instead of urging vaccination against the disease, an almost surefire way to prevent infection, Kennedy has blamed malnourishment for the outbreak, promoted unproven treatments for measles, and falsely claimed in one Fox News interview that the vaccine is ineffective and even dangerous.

Cassidy did not respond to a request for comment on the NIH’s potential abandonment of mRNA vaccine research.

As part of the Trump administration’s push to examine spending on mRNA vaccines, health officials are reviewing a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna, Bloomberg News has reported. Legislation introduced by GOP lawmakers in at least seven states is aimed at banning or limiting mRNA vaccines. In some cases, the measures would hit doctors who give the injections with criminal penalties, fines, and the possible revocation of their licenses.

Stephanie Armour and Céline Gounder contributed to this article.

We’d like to speak with current and former personnel from the Department of Health and Human Services or its component agencies who believe the public should understand the impact of what’s happening within the federal health bureaucracy. Please message KFF Health News on Signal at (415) 519-8778 or get in touch here.

Arthur Allen: aallen@kff.org, @ArthurAllen202

A federal judge dismissed the charges Monday against a Minnesota man accused of hiding a stolen pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the 1939 musical “The Wizard of Oz” after prosecutors informed the court that he died on Sunday.

Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of Crystal, who had been in poor health with lung disease and other ailments, had been scheduled to change his plea to guilty in January but that hearing was postponed indefinitely after he was hospitalized.

FILE – Jerry Hal Saliterman, of Crystal, Minn., is wheeled out of U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., Friday, March 15, 2024, after he made his initial appearance on charges connected to the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, file)

Federal prosecutor Matthew Greenley notified the court in a one-page motion Monday that Saliterman died Sunday but did not say how or where. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz granted the request and dropped the charges.

Defense attorney John Brink confirmed Monday that his client had died but declined to give details. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fargo, North Dakota, which is handling the case, did not immediately return a phone call seeking further information.

According to court filings, Saliterman was hospitalized in early January “for inability to walk and sepsis,” an infection that can be life-threatening. He attended his arraignment three days later via video from what looked like a hospital room. In an update to the court late last month, Brink told the court that his client had been discharged to a hospice facility and that his prognosis was poor. An accompanying letter from his doctor listed severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requiring supplemental oxygen and Parkinson’s disease.

Saliterman was in a wheelchair and on oxygen last March when he made his first court appearance. He was charged then with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering for his role in the ruby slippers case.

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The sequined red slippers were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids. Their whereabouts remained a mystery for nearly 13 years until the FBI recovered them in 2018. They fetched a record for movie memorabilia of $32.5 million in December, according to Heritage Auctions. The slippers were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only three other pairs remain.

Terry Jon Martin, now 78, of Grand Rapids, used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case to steal them. According to his attorney, an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value. But he got rid of the slippers when he learned they were fake, and they ended up with Saliterman. Martin pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced last January to time served because of his poor health.

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed to halt deportations under a rarely-used 18th century wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump asked a federal judge Monday to force officials to explain under oath whether they violated his court order by removing more than 200 people from the country after it was issued and celebrating it on social media.

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The motion marks another escalation in the battle over Trump’s aggressive opening moves in his second term, several of which have been temporarily halted by judges. Trump’s allies have raged over the holds and suggested he does not have to obey them, and some plaintiffs have said it appears the administration is flouting court orders.

On Saturday night, District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody over the newly-invoked Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally-declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the 1798 law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

Trump’s invocation of the act could allow him to deport any noncitizen he says is associated with the gang, without offering proof or even publicly identifying them. The plaintiffs filed their suit on behalf of several Venezuelans in U.S. custody who feared they’d be falsely accused of being Tren de Aragua members and improperly removed from the country.

Told there were plans in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, Boasberg said he, and the government, needed to move fast. “You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg told the government’s lawyer Saturday night.

According to the filing, two planes that took off from Texas’ detention facility when the hearing started more than an hour earlier were in the air at that point, and they apparently continued to El Salvador. A third plane apparently took off after the hearing and Boasberg’s written order was formally published at 7:26 pm eastern time.

El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, on Sunday morning tweeted “Oopsie…too late” above an article referencing Boasberg’s order and announced that more than 200 deportees had arrived in his country. The White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reposted Bukele’s post with an admiring GIF.

Later Sunday, a widely-circulated article in Axios said the administration decided to “defy” the order and quoted anonymous officials who said they concluded it didn’t extend to planes outside U.S. airspace. That drew a quick denial from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said in a statement “the administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.”

Leavitt also stated the administration believed the order was not “lawful” and it was being appealed. The administration argues a federal judge does not have the authority to tell the president whether he can determine the country is being invaded under the act, or how to defend it.

The Department of Justice also filed a statement in the lawsuit saying that some people who were “not in United States territory” at the time of the order had been deported and that, if its appeal was unsuccessful, it wouldn’t use Trump’s proclamation as grounds for further deportations.

Boasberg scheduled a 4 p.m. hearing on Monday and said the government should be prepared to answer a series of questions about the flights laid out in the plaintiffs motion.

Boasberg’s order is only in effect for up to 14 days as he oversees the litigation over Trump’s unprecedented use of the act, which is likely to raise new constitutional issues that can only ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He had scheduled a hearing Friday for further arguments, but the two organizations that filed the initial lawsuit, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, urged him to force the administration to explain in a declaration under oath what happened.

The government’s statements, the plaintiffs wrote, “strongly suggests that the government has chosen to treat this Court’s Order as applying only to individuals still on U.S. soil or on flights that had yet to clear U.S. airspace as of 7:26pm (the time of the written Order).”

“If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the Court’s Order,” they added.

By MICHAEL CASEY, RODRIQUE NGOWI and KATHY McCORMACK, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A doctor from Lebanon who arrived at the Boston airport was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a U.S. visa and a job teaching at Brown University.

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A judge had ordered she not be sent back until there was a hearing, but government lawyers said customs officials did not get word in time.

It’s the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa in the past week, after a student at Columbia who led protests of the Gaza war was arrested, and another student’s visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, had been granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.

Alawieh, who had worked and lived in Rhode Island previously, was detained at least 36 hours, through Friday, and was going to be sent back to Lebanon, the complaint said. Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist, was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order on Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court.

“Whether or not she is in custody of the United States, the court anticipates proceeding with this hearing,” he wrote.

But by Saturday, the cousin filed a motion that customs officials “willfully” disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.

Lawyers for the government explained in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston Logan International Airport did not receive notice of the order until she “had already departed the United States,” the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.

The judge put a hearing on her case on hold, to give Alawieh’s lawyers time to prepare.

Alawieh has worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the United States.

A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown.

Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University’s medical school.

“My colleagues and I are outraged over Dr Alawieh’s deportation. She is a valued colleague and we hope for justice and her return to Rhode Island,” said George Bayliss, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that is “committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve.”

A rally was planned to support her Monday night at the Rhode Island statehouse.