Certain areas of research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is being reduced or discontinued with the justification that these areas no longer align with the agency’s current priorities. One of the areas in which funding will be cut is millions of dollars in NIH grants for studying vaccine hesitancy and strategies for persuading more Americans to vaccinate and improve vaccination rates.1
Recent reports indicate that over 40 grants related to vaccine hesitancy have been cancelled, with speculation that research on mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines could be the next area to experience cuts. National Public Radio (NPR) reported obtaining this information about the changes from two NIH staff members and one person familiar with the agency’s operations, who requested anonymity due to restrictions on speaking publicly. NPR also mentioned reviewing e-mails and documents provided by these sources.2
An e-mail shared among NIH leadership outlined a list of grants set to be terminated, along with instructions on the specific language to be used in the notification letters. The email stated:
It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment.3
Researchers Reporting Cuts to Their NIH Grants
Denis Nash, PhD, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York, whose grant appears on the termination list but has not yet received an official notice, states that the cut will impact his research on developing vaccine messaging strategies for individuals with mental health disorders and on studying barriers to vaccination uptake like “misinformation” and “disinformation.” He said:
Ceasing to support research on the uptake of safe and effective vaccines does not eliminate the underlying challenges related to low vaccine uptake—it exacerbates them.4
Delesha Carpenter, PhD, a professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has received an NIH grant for the past three years to study coronavirus vaccine hesitancy, in collaboration with partners at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of South Carolina. She has been preparing for the possibility that her research grant will be terminated. She stated:
If we take away research on vaccine hesitancy, we’re also going to be taking away the ability to provide people with the best information about whether the vaccine is in their best interest.5
Thomas Carpino, an epidemiology graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, found that the $48,974 training grant funding for his PhD research on monkeypox among men who have sex with men is being canceled. Although Carpino has already defended his thesis and secured a postdoctoral position, he said he will require alternative funding to complete his study. “The grant was “to train the next generation of public health scientists. They’re sending a very strong message to anyone who’s interested in pursuing these research topics,” he said.6
The list of grant cancellations also targets grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Many of these grants focus on encouraging vaccine acceptance among racial minority populations or exploring the reasons behind why parents have doubts about or do not intend to give their children early childhood and adolescent vaccinations.7
In some grants supporting efforts to model disease outbreaks, “vaccine hesitancy” is one of several factors considered in the models. It is uncertain whether these grants will be completely terminated or altered to exclude vaccine hesitancy. Other grants, such as one focused on studying HIV infections in adolescents, will not be fully discontinued but subprojects related to vaccine hesitancy will be cut.8
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Click here to view References:1 Stein R, Stone W. NIH cuts funding for vaccine-hesitancy research. mRNA research may be next. NPR Mar. 12, 2025.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Reardon S. NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy. Science Mar. 10, 2025.
5 Johnson C, Achenbach J. NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Yahoo News Mar. 10, 2024.
6 Reardon S. NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy. Science Mar. 10, 2025.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
8 Responses
Your reports are good and I’m thankfukl the NIH choices are being examined but do you have a govt issued reference to cite. NOR’s “May be” hypotheticals are disgusting.
Quote; Gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated.
Because the system is rife with deeply entrenched corruption, the government regulators have been bought and and co opted for decades, there is a two tier justice system, the corporations are a den of vipers and thieves. And every time we go out in public and see wrecked children and adults just about everywhere whom were obviously vaccine damaged, the dramatically reduced intelligence capability of the people around us, their propagandized states. That’s why. That poor lady is confused why someone would take her job away, she lives in an ivory tower and is not present here in the real world with the rest of the working class. Repeat after me; Safe AND effective! Safe AND effective! Squaaaaaaaaak!
We’re not ‘vaccine hesitant’. We said NO to vaccines. And we meant it. No hesitancy involved. Go ahead ask again, see if our answers are any different… Use our own tax money against us, see if that changes anything. The corruption runs deep. Yet, so do the convictions of honest people. We can tell the differences between honesty and deception, without having fancy degrees, white labcoats, government approval, or taxpayer funding. Everyone at the NIH should go away and learn to build a better birdhouse or something. We’re tired of the lies and deception, policy for sale status quo approaches. Full stop. Enough is enough already. You can not inject health.
Thank you, Colorado, for your excellent comment!
Colorado is correct. Governments, some medical professionals & pharma companies have sullied their professions & let us down badly. Money is too important to them. Pharma have been caught out, fined huge sums, yet such is their earning potential they probably factor that in to their pricing as just an annoying little blip
I am not vaccine hesitant, I am absolutely sure that I will not get any kind of vaccine!
1. Notice the language here by “Dr.” Nash who is trying to raise the false idea that people refusing to take experimental gene editing experiments are “mentally ill”.
2. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill… gee, where have we heard about this university during the Plandemic, oh yea… they were the ones who helped develop the Covid bioweapon that was then shipped to Wuhan, China under Obama, and then DELIBERATELY released in conjunction with China for a BIOATTACK on the whole world.
This administration values informed consent more than deception, coercion, lies, and extortion. Amazing how these vaccine hesitancy researchers don’t see that they are the ones giving misinformation. I suggest these individuals are guilty of criminal negligence and ought to be treated as criminals.
The medical industry is massively capable of promoting their products, and doing marketing research.