Volcanoes are erupting in The Philippines, but on-fire Australia received some welcome rain. The Iran war cries have been called off and The Donald’s military powers are about to be hamstrung by the Senate. Meanwhile, his impeachment trial is starting, and we’re all on Twitter for a front-row seat.
What Could Go Right? RFK Hasn’t Totally Killed mRNA Research (Yet)
At least there’s still hope for the next frontier in the cancer battle.
Emma Varvaloucas
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RFK Hasn’t Totally Killed mRNA Research (Yet)
Health chief RFK Jr.’s decision to pull funding for mRNA vaccine projects aimed at upper respiratory infections like the flu is just as dumb and self-defeating as people say it is. What steps forward have been erased or delayed is impossible to know.
(The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the world’s largest funder of biomedical research—is still backing general mRNA research. Forgive scientists for their skittishness about that.)
What makes this move especially infuriating is that under almost any other political circumstance, mRNA-based vaccines would be galvanizing the American public, not only because they speed vaccine production in the event of a pandemic, but also because they represent the next frontier in beating back cancer.
A larger, aging population has resulted in an increase in the number of cancer deaths worldwide. But improved screening and diagnosis; more targeted treatments; and lessened exposures to carcinogens—such as those in air pollution and cigarettes—and cancer-causing infections have boosted survival rates over the past few decades. If you remove the effect that the elderly have on the data, cancer mortality rates have actually fallen by a third since 1990. The chart below shows what is happening in the United States, but the trend holds across Canada, Australia, and most of Western Europe, too.
Immunotherapies, which enlist the body’s own defenses to combat cancer, are on track to tamp down those rates even further. mRNA vaccines are one such immunotherapy, cueing the immune system, via instructions carried by mRNA, to seek out and kill cancer cells. Early results show that these vaccines shrink tumors and prevent their return; clinical trials are ongoing for skin, lung, colon, breast, and even brain cancers.
In the end, mRNA vaccines for cancer and other diseases will remain one of the most exciting stories of the next decade, whether RFK continues to shutter the government’s coffers or not. Biomedical companies like Moderna and BioNTech, and others in Europe and China, will run their trials regardless. Governments—China, the European Union, the United Kingdom—fully support the technology; the UK just unveiled a center devoted to developing RNA therapies and vaccines and figuring out how to help low- and middle-income countries reap their benefits.
There may not be an mRNA cancer vaccine ready to be submitted for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval while RFK’s vaccine panel is in the driver’s seat. If one were, what would the panel decide? It’s unclear if its members’ skepticism of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, although not total, would transfer. Watching the NIH-funded mRNA research over the next few years should provide us with an indication of which way the winds are blowing.
In the meantime, I have seen in my own life that the promise of mRNA cancer vaccines is a discussion point that intrigues even those who were mildly suspicious of the technology during the pandemic. Bringing around others among the mRNA-hesitant is a long-game proposition. We’ve only just begun to play it.
What Could Go Right? S7 E23: Shaking Up the Vatican with Austen Ivereigh
How can an American pope change the world? Zachary and Emma dive deep with renowned papal expert Austen Ivereigh, British journalist, acclaimed author, and historian, to discuss Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the US. Austen shares insider insights into the pope’s whirlwind early months at the Vatican and unpacks the ideological tug-of-war between tradition and reform within the Catholic Church. Discover how Pope Leo plans to continue Pope Francis’ reform movement, how his leadership style contrasts that of fellow American Donald Trump, and what an American papacy could mean for billions of people. | Listen now
By the Numbers
84%: Share of vehicles imported to Sri Lanka that are electric, representative of a wider developing-nation-led EV transition
14.9%: Year-on-year drop in murders in the US in 2024
120M: Decrease in the number of animals farmed for fur since 2014
Quick Hits
📉 So far in 2025, fewer people have died from extreme weather than ever before. Even accounting for climate change, we’ve gotten much better at protecting ourselves from nature’s beatings.
🌞 Renewables will overtake coal as the world’s top electricity source by 2026, according to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency.
🪱 Kenya has eliminated sleeping sickness, and Uganda is close to ending river blindness. These are two of the maladies collectively known as “neglected tropical diseases” that are slowly being uprooted from the world’s poorest countries by a massive global health effort.
🏳️🌈 St. Lucia has decriminalized same-sex conduct, the fifth Caribbean country to do so. It remains criminalized in five others.
⭐ Scientists have solved the mystery of a mass die-off of billions of sea stars: a bacteria that becomes deadlier as the water temperature climbs. Next up: regrowing a more resistant population.
🫀 A rare, once fatal, heart condition is now treatable, thanks to three medications recently approved by the FDA. Though expensive, they are covered by Medicare.
👀 What we’re watching: Currently frozen funding for an array of CDC programs, including ones that aim to lower overdose deaths and prevent HIV, will soon be unfrozen. And, Illinois has become the first state to ban AI therapists.
💡 Editor’s pick: Can civilizational collapse actually benefit human welfare?
TPN Member Originals
(Who are our Members? Get to know them.)
- MAGA’s war on the American economy | Slow Boring | Matthew Yglesias
- Gerrymandering is government corruption | The Preamble | Sharon McMahon
- The EPA moves to repeal emissions regulations | Tangle | Isaac Saul
- As Trump pressures universities, what’s really at stake? | GZERO | Ian Bremmer
- How to resist at a time of moral collapse | Lucid | Ruth Ben-Ghiat
- On showing up, and meeting the moment | Breaking the News | James Fallows
- The power of politeness | The Atlantic ($) | Arthur C. Brooks
- Why more people in the world are feeling hopeful (except us) | NYT ($) | David Brooks
Holding the center: Between extremes in American discourse | Andrew Yang Podcast | Thomas Chatterton Williams- Munich 2025 | Diane Francis | Diane Francis
- Fixing the spending crisis at the Department of State | CGD | Charles Kenny