Clinical research centers across the US, including the Jacksonville Center for Clinical Research, are being impacted by the Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement to cancel contracts and withdraw funding for vaccines being developed to combat viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

Research shows mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladopo called for a halt to the use of COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA and said the vaccines could result in an illness.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is announcing $40 million in funding to help develop messenger RNA vaccines in Africa.

Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future.

China is trying to navigate its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted many months ago, the kind of vaccines that have proven to offer the best protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19.

Nursing moms who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 may wonder if the vaccine’s protection is passed on to their newborns. According to some small studies on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, vaccine antibodies have been detected in breast milk.

Pharmaceutical company BioNTech says it wants to use the mRNA technology behind its coronavirus vaccine to target malaria.

The Jacksonville Center for Clinical Research has been awarded the opportunity by Pfizer to conduct trials of a bioengineered flu vaccine -- similar to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The world’s leading COVID-19 vaccines may offer lasting protection that diminishes the need for frequent booster shots.

In a rare acknowledgement, China’s top disease control official says current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – One of the doctors who created the technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine hopes anyone refusing to get the shot out of fear it was created too fast will realize that’s simply not true. AdA moment of relief watching doses of the Pfizer vaccine shipping out was clouded by the fact that having a vaccine doesn’t mean anything unless people are willing to get the shot. A truck loaded with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine leaves the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant in Portage, Mich., Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020. Baptist Health Executive Vice President and Chief Physician Executive Dr. Elizabeth Ransom explains how the COVID-19 vaccine works. The technology is not newIt all comes down to this mRNA technology.

Johnson & Johnson recently submitted its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization. Q: How effective is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? AdQ: Does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have advantages over Moderna’s or Pfizer’s? Q: How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work? AdQ: Are the side effects to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine similar to what you might experience for any vaccine, including Moderna’s and Pfizer’s?

Dr. Elizabeth Ransom, executive vice president and chief physician executive at Baptist Health, sets the record straight on rumors circulating about the COVID-19 vaccine. MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine contains harmful ingredients. The names of COVID-19 vaccine components may not roll off the tongue easily, but that’s no reason to fear they might be harmful. MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine is too expensive. For more information about COVID-19 vaccines as they become more widely available to the public, visit baptistjax.com/covid19vaccine.

The first COVID-19 vaccine has been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, and a second is being evaluated. Both are MRNA vaccines – a new type of vaccine technology. “These MRNA vaccines are highly effective,” said Thad Stappenbeck, MD, PhD, Chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Inflammation & Immunity. When COVID-19 MRNA is used in a vaccine, it’s engineered and encoded to activate the body’s immune system to fight coronavirus. They had really no major safety concerns in either of the major trials that have been done with these vaccines.”Per federal advisors, COVID-19 vaccines will first be administered to healthcare workers, and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.

How could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted. Both shots -- one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health -- are so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines, a brand-new technology. U.S. regulators are set to decide this month whether to allow emergency use, paving the way for rationed shots that will start with health workers and nursing home residents. Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses — often in giant vats of cells or, like most flu shots, in chicken eggs — and then purifying them before next steps in brewing shots.