By Michael R. Bloomberg

For business leaders, failure to teach the lessons of a crisis can be catastrophic. For government leaders, when millions of lives are at stake, the consequences can prove to be more destructive. Unfortunately, the United States seems to be heading there because of Robert Kennedy Junior’s disagreement with his boss, President Donald Trump.

Little History: On January 10, 2020, a Chinese scientist posted the genetic sequence of a “mysterious virus” that had sick dozens and had caused at least one death. Forty-two days later, as the Covid -9 was spreading around the world, researchers near Boston sent the first batch of an experimental vaccine to US regulators. Three months later, Trump announced the company Warp Speed, an effort of $ 18 billion to accelerate the growth, approval and distribution of vaccines.

Within a year, billions of doses of vaccines around the world were granted, saving millions of lives, including many Americans. As Trump himself said: “Warp Speed, whether you are a democratic or Republican, was one of the most incredible achievements ever made in this country.” He was absolutely right, but his health minister disagrees. The question is: Will Trump allow Kennedy to destroy his legacy?

Recently, Kennedy has canceled $ 500 million for the research and development of so -called Messenger RNA vaccines. The excuse that MRNA technology is ineffective against respiratory infections is incorrect. The director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Batatsaria, of course knows this, so he released a different reason: that there is insufficient confidence in the public.

Batatsia did not, of course, mention that Kennedy had fueled this public mistrust. In any case, the correct answer to the misunderstandings about lifesaving drugs is not to raise your hands, to cancel the funding and to leave. It is to use the power of the public step to bring society, the community, the church, the local government and other leaders to spread the events and to overcome the hesitations. This is a leadership.

Not satisfied with the dissemination of misinformation and the cessation of existing projects, Kennedy essentially ended the additional federal funding for research in MRNA vaccines. These two decisions endanger many American lives.

To understand the scale of the danger created by Kennedy, you need to understand how revolutionary the mRNA vaccines are. For many decades, traditional vaccines have given a healthy person a small part of a dead or impaired virus. This stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies, which protect the body from severe infection when it encounters the actual virus. In some cases, millions of hen eggs are used to develop and produce these vaccines, with hatred of viruses. In other cases, cell crops grow on biofuels. Both processes are complex and time -consuming.

The new mRNA vaccines are growing much faster. Messenger RNA is a chain of genetic code that gives instructions to the cells. For decades, scientists have been working to design a synthetic form of mRNA, which would then tell the body to combat specific infections. Such a discovery, in theory, would allow pharmaceutical producers to make a vaccine without using the virus itself, thereby reducing months of growth time. And yet, despite significant advances, a MRNA vaccine had never been produced or tested on a massive scale.

Warp Speed has helped overcome obstacles and produce vaccines in record time. The speed of this discovery gave birth to outrageous theories that vaccines change DNA, that they implant microchip in the body, that they cause infertility. Everything was nonsense, the absolute “false news”. But they were spread by skeptics such as Kennedy. Countless studies have shown that the vaccines were safe, while the two scientists behind their development were honored with the Nobel Prize.

The misinformation was not able to hold back, but Kennedy can. All he needs is a phone call from the White House that will order him to recall his recent decisions. Otherwise, when the next pandemic breaks out, other countries – including China – will be ready to have a vaccine within a few weeks, while American scientists will fight with outdated technology and citizens will wait in line.

Senator Bill Cassidi, whose vote was decisive for Kennedy’s ratification, expressed his disappointment last week, saying that the minister “handed over to China an important technology” and undermine the government’s goals. He’s right. And yet, both Cassidi and his colleagues in Congress remain spectators, while Kennedy is endangering American lives.

Without government leadership, the private sector is unlikely to fill the financial gap. Research on treatments against a hypothetical pandemic is economically risky so public funding is vital to rescuing lives.

Kennedy’s decisions will also have a deterrent effect on other possible MRNA technology applications, including type 1 diabetes, HIV, genetic diseases and a number of other diseases, especially cancer.

This is worth pointing out: MRNA research could lead to cancer treatment. How many Americans who have cancer relatives are ready to sacrifice them to Kennedy’s irrational phobias?

The White House must remember and celebrate the excellent achievement of his first term and build it further, putting a brake on Kennedy. If it does, the president who accelerated the development of the Covid vaccine can be written in history as the one who gave boost to the discovery of cancer treatment and other diseases.