Authorities in India are warning that Nipah virus has “pandemic potential” following new outbreaks and quarantines. and renewed concern about human-to-human transmission. Nipah is a rare but extremely lethal bat-borne virus first identified in the late 1990s. It has no approved treatment, no licensed vaccine, and a fatality rate that has ranged from 40 to 75 percent in past outbreaks. Perhaps not coincidentally, Moderna has a Nipah vaccine already in development and recently reported to demonstrate a “safe” immune response. The vaccine, known as mRNA-1215, entered human trials under the auspices of the U.S. National Institutes of Health in 2022. It is an mRNA-based vaccine, using the same platform Moderna employed for COVID. mRNA? Wasn’t that outlawed by the U.S. government last year? Sort of. In 2025, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it was winding down mRNA vaccine development under BARDA, the agency responsible for funding new pandemic countermeasures. The policy explicitly halted new mRNA vaccine projects going forward. What it did not do was cancel or prohibit projects that were already underway. The Nipah vaccine falls into that latter category. Because it was launched before the BARDA cutoff and is being run through NIH clinical research channels, it was effectively grandfathered in. That means it can continue through trials and, if regulators choose, could still be deployed. Which raises an uncomfortable but obvious question: When officials warn that a virus has “pandemic potential,” and a ready-made mRNA vaccine already exists — one that survived a federal mRNA funding shutdown — is this about preparedness or about timing? The post Nipah Has “Pandemic Potential.” There’s Already an mRNA Vaccine. appeared first on Redacted.