Misinformation, hesitancy could blunt impact of new cancer vaccines

Chase Johnson, a 37-year-old breast cancer survivor, is among patients in a Cleveland Clinic trial for a new breast cancer vaccine that has generated an immune response in nearly three-quarters of participants. Researchers are especially hopeful about mRNA cancer vaccines, after Moderna and Merck announced last month that a personalized mRNA vaccine paired with immunotherapy succeeded in a late-stage skin cancer trial.

Doctors and researchers worry that vaccine misinformation, amplified in part by the Trump administration, could blunt the impact of these advances, pointing to the false ‘turbo cancer’ claim about mRNA vaccines and to HPV vaccine hesitancy as a cautionary precedent. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., before joining the administration, had filed complaints against Merck and falsely claimed the HPV vaccine increases cervical cancer risk; as secretary he dismissed the entire HHS vaccine advisory panel and altered the child vaccine schedule, changes since blocked in federal court.

Trump himself recently claimed, falsely, that separated MMR vaccine doses could each fill a ‘bottle of soda,’ while the administration has proposed cutting funding for vaccine research and hesitancy studies. Researchers have launched an ‘inoculation theory’ project to preemptively counter false claims before they take hold around the new cancer vaccines.

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