Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision this week to discontinue funding of the development of messenger RNA vaccines has alarmed scientists, who have warned that it will leave the country far less prepared for future pandemics. But it is also a matter of national security.

Not all biological threats are natural. And if the United States were ever to be targeted in a bioterrorism attack, it would now be less prepared for that emergency as well, security experts say. As the development of Covid-19 shots in 2020 illustrated, mRNA technology can shave crucial months off the timeline of vaccine deliveries.

“We’re unilaterally disarming ourselves in a period in which the bio threats are continuing to proliferate,” said Stephen Morrison, director for global health policy at the Cen

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