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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is funding research at Rutgers University on how to increase uptake of Merck’s human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine among Black adolescents, documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense via a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is funding research at Rutgers University on how to increase uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among Black adolescents, documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed.
HHS awarded the $600,000, three-year, grant, which will be administered by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), to Racquel Elizabeth Kohler, Ph.D.
It is one of nearly 50 grants identified by CHD in June — totaling more than $40 million — awarded by HHS to universities, healthcare systems and departments of public health to increase HPV vaccine uptake among adolescents.
The grant fits into a broader research program across HHS, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars toward creating “culturally tailored” strategies to increase vaccine uptake among “vaccine-hesitant” communities of color.
Kohler’s research seeks to overcome vaccine “hesitancy” by developing text messages, or “tailored interventions,” to send to Black families following an HPV vaccine recommendation by their provider.
The project hypothesizes that follow-up tailored text messages will increase vaccine confidence and motivate Black parents to vaccinate their children.
Kohler, who also is a co-investigator on a Merck grant to study “COVID-19 and vaccine confidence among underserved New Jersey communities,” received the funding as part of NCI’s Transition Career Development program, which helps develop skills for early career cancer researchers.
The approved grant proposal obtained by CHD notes that the study is a response to the Biden administration’s Cancer Moonshot program that seeks to cut cancer deaths in half by 2047.
The National Institutes of Health developed the HPV vaccine technology, which it licensed exclusively to Merck — the only pharmaceutical company licensed to produce the HPV vaccine in the U.S.
More than 80 lawsuits against Merck are pending in federal court for vaccine injuries associated with its Gardasil HPV vaccine.
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