WASHINGTON -- So-called mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic — and now scientists are using that Nobel Prize-winning technology to try to develop vaccines and treatments against a long list of diseases including cancer and cystic fibrosis.

This speeding up of the production process is one of the key reasons mRNA vaccines have "long been distrusted by vaccine sceptics". Kennedy himself referred to mRNA vaccine technology as "troubled", and called older "whole-cell" vaccine technology "safer".

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.