Trump’s former surgeon general rips new policy: ‘People are going to die’

Donald Trump‘s former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, is warning of deadly consequences following Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cut funding for mRNA vaccine development. “People are going to die because we’re cutting short funding for this technology,” Adams said in a recent CBS interview.

Trump’s former U.S. Surgeon General

Adams, who served under Trump from 2017 until the end of his first term, described the development of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic as the administration’s crowning achievement. Through “Operation Warp Speed,” the Trump administration helped bring the vaccines to market in record time. Adams called the initiative Trump’s greatest accomplishment “bar none” and expressed concern that the administration is now turning away from the technology. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is the foundation for the two most common COVID-19 vaccines licensed in the U.S. Adams noted that experts agree vaccine development would have taken 18 to 24 months longer without mRNA. “By the most conservative estimates, at least 2 million lives were saved,” he said. “Many people say that up to 20 million lives were saved because of the vaccines.”

RFK Jr.

Kennedy announced the cuts in a video posted on X, saying nearly $500 million in funding across 22 projects at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority would be impacted. The agency supports companies in developing medical supplies to address public health threats. Kennedy defended his decision, calling the vaccine technology “ineffective.” But Adams pushed back, saying that the claim is “simply not true.” Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, has been reshaping national vaccine, food and medicine policies since assuming leadership at HHS. His stance, Adams warned, risks undermining public health progress.

Vaccine rhetoric

Adams also criticized Kennedy’s response to the recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, where a police officer was killed. He argued Kennedy’s rhetoric around vaccines is “fanning the flames that lead to situations like we saw at the CDC.” Authorities identified the shooter as 30-year-old Georgia resident Patrick Joseph White. According to The New York Times, White’s neighbor, Nancy Hoalst, said he believed vaccines had harmed him. “We have to understand people are listening,” Adams said. “And when you call the CDC a cesspool … when you make claims that have been proven false time and time again about safety and efficacy of vaccines, that can cause unintended consequences.”

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a recent email to staff, Kennedy wrote the CDC shooting “is a reminder of the very human challenges public servants sometimes face — even in places dedicated to healing and progress. … But it also reinforces the importance of the work you do every day.”

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