Fucking hell, RFK suggesting that they can have a vaccine for 'the whole phylum of viruses' isn't clumsy, it's yet another example of his utter lack of basic high school level science comprehension. It's like hearing that someone is working on a cancer treatment for brain cancer and saying it can be used against all cancers. Par for the course with this group.
Ok, so what's this about a universal vaccine? The current effort is specifically targeting influenza.
Science background:
Because of the challenges in making these vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza strains, there's been a large ongoing effort to make a 'universal' vaccine for all these variants, as well as making a better vaccine to improve the durability, efficacy and breadth of protection. This is yet another global effort best encompassed by this chart which shows the multitude of world-wide scientific approaches using virus-based, nucleic-acid (mRNA) based, nanoparticles, recombinant proteins, virus-like particles and alternative viral methods - at this moment, based on this tracker, 225 candidates, 30 active trials, 188 developers and those six different platforms.
There is considerable confusion around RFK's announcement regarding the nomination of the specific approach he endorsed. First, it's not new as the Phase 1 for this approach was put forward by the NIH in a Phase 1, announced by Fauci He Who Shall Not Be Named, in 2022. The specific vaccine (BPL-1357) uses a whole virus which has been inactivated by a chemical (beta-propiolactone or BPL) to eliminate the infectivity while maintaining the structural integrity of the virus particle so it can be used in a vaccine. It's manufactured in canine kidney cells rather than chicken eggs.
Second, the approach with BPL-1357 contains Influenza type A, but not the Influenza type B (which is a component of current influenza vaccines), which seems to defeat the purpose of a 'universal' approach.
The use of inactivated viruses is vaccine production is one of the earliest approaches ever developed, which produced the first vaccines in the late 1800s for thyphoid, cholera and the first polio vaccines in the '50s. But frankly, it's an older technology and many of those listed in the above chart utilize more cutting edge methods.
Finally, this nomination of this one method out of all the other potential approaches (dubbed 'Generation Gold Standard') puts a large amount of money ($500m) in this one approach, developed by Dr. Matthew Memoli...who was recently names as the principal director of the NIH.
So, tl;dr - a lot of eggs (kidneys?) in one basket. There's nothing wrong, per se, with a whole inactivated virus vaccine but it's not a new approach, the vaccine touted from RFK is far from universal, it ignores many other ways to build a better mousetrap, and puts a shit ton of funding in the lab of one guy who happens to have been nominated to run the place.