RFK Jr.’s War on mRNA Vaccines. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, August 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: The new definition of death one medical ethicist says could open the door to organ harvesting. The Israeli dance professor suing Berkeley for discrimination. Why the Broadway smash hit ‘Hamilton’ couldn’t get made in 2025.

But first: The miracle molecule caught in RFK Jr.’s crosshairs.

Our deliverance arrived during the bleakest days of the Covid-19 pandemic: a vaccine developed with a breakthrough technology that would crush the virus and allow normal life to resume. And that wasn’t all. The vaccine delivery system, known as mRNA, had the potential, we were told, to bring us one miracle cure after another.

Infectious diseases would be quickly vanquished. Effective, individualized cancer treatments would be standard fare. All due to the work of scientists—two of whom won the Nobel Prize—who figured out how to harness a molecule essential for life.

Now mRNA is back in the news, and the news is not so good. Recently, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the federal government was canceling nearly $500 million in government-funded mRNA research projects. Kennedy has long been an mRNA foe, calling the Covid shot “the deadliest vaccine ever made” back in 2001.

Bethany McLean, who with our own Joe Nocera wrote the book The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind, investigates the little molecule that was supposed to change everything. McLean talked to scientists, investors, and policymakers—and sorted through the hype, politics, and demonization to tell us where mRNA technology actually stands.

One conclusion she draws that most of us likely can agree with is that we now live in a world in which “politics and science corrupt each other.”

—Emily Yoffe

• More chaos at the Federal Reserve: Having stopped asking for Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s head, President Trump is now demanding the resignation of Lisa Cook, a black member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors who has consistently voted in favor of Powell’s recommendations. The president told Cook to “resign, now!!!” and claimed that she was involved in mortgage fraud. The allegation is unconfirmed.

• The Israeli military said yesterday that it will call on 60,000 reserve soldiers in preparation for a takeover of Gaza City. Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved the Gaza invasion and began evacuating civilians to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

• More than 70 Afghan deportees from Iran died in a bus crash in northern Afghanistan yesterday. Of the 78 people killed, 71 were among the 1.8 million Afghans living in Iran, many of whom are being forced out as part of a new immigration crackdown.

• Deadly flooding has killed nearly 400 people in Pakistan this summer during an especially devastating monsoon season. The heavy rainfall has also wreaked havoc upon Mumbai, leaving large areas of the Indian city underwater.

• The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will scan social media for “anti-American ideologies” when considering visa and green-card applicants. The new policy appears to expand a social-media review policy for student visa applicants first reported by The Free Press in June.

• Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that the border wall will be painted black to help prevent illegal crossings. The decision, made at President Trump’s behest, is part of efforts to make the border wall harder to scale. “There will be more added to it as far as technology, cameras, sensors—we’re also going to be painting it black,” Noem said. “When something is painted black, it gets even warmer, making it even harder for people to climb.”

• The Food and Drug Administration cautioned Americans to avoid eating some shrimp sold at Walmart because it could be radioactive. The warning came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection detected shipping containers possibly contaminated by the isotope Cesium-137 at four American ports.

• A Las Vegas DJ invited a Justin Bieber impersonator on stage at his show at the Wynn Las Vegas resort last weekend, thinking he was the real deal. The company called the move “an elaborate and multistep ruse” and banned the impersonator for life.

Yesterday, some Free Press subscribers held court with senior editor Peter Savodnik at a Martha’s Vineyard coffee shop, where he—and they—discussed the decline of legacy media, the rise of Trump, the abandonment of the old Democratic base, solar system colonization, climate denialism, and the general upside-downness of the world right now.

Be on the lookout for more events with Peter in his hometown of Los Angeles, and for more casual Free Press meetups coming to a city near you. Expect intimate, dynamic conversations—and more live appearances by your favorite Free Press writers.

We can’t wait to see you there. Become a paid subscriber today for early access to meetups, merch drops, and more.

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