“When science is politicized, people pay the price. We’re playing with fire. Vaccination isn’t just a medical intervention; it’s a social contract. When the credibility of the committee that advises our immunization policies is undermined, that contract begins to unravel”. Tyler B. Evans, a physician and infectious disease and public health expert and CEO of Wellness Equity Alliance, a US physician organization fighting health inequities, expresses concern about the nearly half-billion-dollar cut in funding for mRNA vaccines decided by the US Department of Health, despite immense backlash from the scientific and medical communities. “The damage – Evans explains – will not be evenly distributed. Communities of color, undocumented families, and low-income populations who already face misinformation and limited access will bear the brunt. We risk not only lower vaccination rates but a fundamental breakdown in trust. And once trust is lost, rebuilding it takes decades”. mRNA vaccines, “unfairly cast as a political wedge when they should be recognized as one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine”. According to the expert, mRNA vaccines “will likely be the first target”. “When you sow doubt about the legitimacy of scientific consensus”, ha observes, “that doubt spreads. Today it’s Covid-19, tomorrow it’s HPV, the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella, ed.), or the flu vaccine. We’re not just talking about numbers on a spreadsheet. We’re talking about preventable outbreaks, avoidable deaths, and growing disparities in who gets access to health”.
Innovation cannot progress “in an environment where science is treated like opinion,” Evans warns. “If we show that evidence-based decision-making can be pushed aside for political convenience, we risk losing our strategic and moral footing as a public health leader”. And the most serious aspect, he warns, is not so much the slowdown in progress, but the fact that “the neediest people will be left even further behind”. 
“mRNA,” the expert specifies, “is not limited to one antigen. We can encode multiple antigens or variant spikes in a single shot to broaden coverage. The platform exists to move fast, stay flexible, and keep the edge over evolution. The real vulnerability,” Evans concludes, “is not scientific. It is when misinformation outpaces communication and turns a solvable problem into a preventable tragedy”.