{"id":32862,"date":"2026-08-08T17:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32862"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:15:47","slug":"what-the-first-mrna-flu-vaccine-means-for-flu-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32862","title":{"rendered":"What the first mRNA flu vaccine means for flu shots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">On August 5, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/kennedy-mrna-vaccines-barda-hhs-cancel-contracts\/756953\/\">canceled 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth roughly $500 million<\/a> and told the country it would stop investing in the technology that had brought us life-saving Covid vaccines. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, claimed that the data showed these vaccines fail to protect against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu. That his claims weren\u2019t true \u2014 Moderna had already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/influenza-vaccines\/moderna-announces-promising-efficacy-results-mrna-flu-vaccine-trial\">published Phase 3 trial results showing the opposite<\/a> \u2014 didn\u2019t seem to matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">On August 5, 2026 \u2014 one year to the day later \u2014 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/08\/05\/fda-approves-moderna-mflusiva-first-mrna-flu-vaccine\/\">approved mFLUSIVA<\/a>, the first mRNA influenza vaccine ever licensed in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">That symmetry, while highly useful to writers like myself who are always looking to identify the rhymes of history, wasn\u2019t planned. The approval landed on the one-year anniversary simply because of the deadline the agency had set for itself in February of this year, after it refused to review Moderna\u2019s application and then, 15 days later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/02\/18\/fda-moderna-reverse-course-flu-vaccine\/\">reversed itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The decision didn\u2019t earn a huge amount of press, in part because seasonal flu is a disease Americans have rarely taken seriously \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/fluvaxview\/dashboard\/index.html\">fewer than 50 percent of US adults<\/a> got their flu shot this past fall and winter. But flu is no joke: the 2024\u201325 season produced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu-burden\/php\/data-vis-vac\/2024-2025-prevented.html\">51 million illnesses, 710,000 hospitalizations, and 45,000 deaths<\/a>. That\u2019s more than the number of Americans who died in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhtsa.gov\/press-releases\/nhtsa-reports-sharp-drop-traffic-fatalities-first-half-2025\">car crashes<\/a> last year. And the damage from a flu virus doesn\u2019t stop when the fever does. In the week after a confirmed infection, the risk of a heart attack runs roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aarp.org\/health\/conditions-treatments\/infections-increase-heart-attack-stroke-risk\/\">six times higher than normal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">So a better flu vaccine matters. But the more interesting thing is what the approval says about the year that produced it. The nine experts who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/moderna-mflusiva-mrna-flu-vaccine-fda-committee-vote\/823275\/\">voted unanimously<\/a> that this vaccine\u2019s benefits outweigh its risks were appointed under the very same secretary who was against mRNA technology. Asked to look at the evidence, those experts couldn\u2019t produce a single vote against it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">That\u2019s not quite a change of heart, but at a dark time for public health, it\u2019s something to hang our hopes on \u2014 because flu could just be the start for this technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">If you\u2019ve ever taken a flu shot, thank a chicken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Every flu vaccine Americans have received since the 1940s has been grown inside fertilized chicken eggs. It\u2019s a laborious process, closer to agriculture than it is high technology. Each batch incubates for nine to 12 days; the World Health Organization then spends months making the reagents manufacturers need to calibrate doses. The whole sequence runs about six months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">That means that the flu strains in your vaccine in November were selected back in February. Which is a problem, because flu viruses don\u2019t like to stand still. Between February and November, the virus drifts, and the current dominant H3N2 flu <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.jhu.edu\/2020\/fast-spreading-mutation-helps-common-flu-subtype-escape-immune-response\">drifts especially fast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The eggs are a problem, too. Growing flu virus in a chicken egg forces it to adapt to egg cells, and those adaptations alter the very surface protein the vaccine is meant to teach your immune system to recognize. Between the 2011 and 2020 flu seasons, egg-adaptive mutations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/03007995.2023.2284386\">caused<\/a> more mismatches than the virus\u2019s own drift did. And more mismatches mean a less effective vaccine \u2014 while the flu shot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu-burden\/php\/data-vis-vac\/2024-2025-prevented.html\">prevented<\/a> an estimated 12,000 deaths in the 2024\u201325 flu season, it is the weakest vaccine in routine American use, landing anywhere between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu-vaccines-work\/php\/effectiveness-studies\/index.html\">20 and 60 percent effective<\/a> depending on how well February\u2019s guess matched November\u2019s virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">mRNA skips the egg. The shot carries instructions, a strip of genetic code that tells your own cells to build the flu\u2019s surface protein, which your immune system then learns to attack. And swapping in a new strain means retyping that code, not growing a new virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">As a result, Moderna told the FDA\u2019s advisory panel it can go from strain selection to finished vaccine in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtimes.com\/articles\/323282\/20260806\/mflusiva-approved-fda-clears-mrna-flu-shot-unlocking-combo-pandemic-vaccine-resubmission.htm\">two to three months instead of six<\/a>. That means strain picks could move later, closer to the season they cover, and a novel flu virus surfacing in September could still be blocked by a reformulated vaccine in the same season. Eggs are great, but they can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Building off the platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Back in January I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/474808\/flu-season-vaccine-hospitalizations-mrna-shots\">wrote here<\/a> about the universal flu vaccine \u2014 one shot covering every strain for years. It\u2019s a public health dream. mFLUSIVA isn\u2019t that, but some of the best hopes for a universal flu vaccine run through the mRNA platform, and platforms only improve when somebody uses them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">That word \u2014 platform \u2014 is where last August\u2019s decision went wrong. Kennedy made a claim about one application, mRNA respiratory vaccines, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/kennedy-mrna-vaccines-barda-hhs-cancel-contracts\/756953\/\">cut funding for the technology underneath all of them<\/a>. But over the 12 months that followed, the science on mRNA kept flowing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In June, five-year melanoma results showed an individualized mRNA therapy given after surgery alongside pembrolizumab <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oncology-central.com\/keynote-942-study-pembrolizumab-vaccine-combination-cuts-melanoma-recurrence-by-49\/\">cut the risk of recurrence or death by 49 percent<\/a>. In April, a Memorial Sloan Kettering team reported that among pancreatic cancer patients whose immune systems responded to a personalized mRNA vaccine, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mskcc.org\/news\/can-mrna-vaccines-fight-pancreatic-cancer-msk-clinical-researchers-are-trying-find-out\">nearly 90 percent were alive six years later<\/a>; the five-year survival rate in that disease sits near 13 percent. And KJ Muldoon, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2025\/05\/15\/crispr-gene-editing-landmark-first-ever-single-patient-genetic-fix-nejm-reports\/\">first person treated with a gene-editing therapy built for his mutation alone<\/a>, is walking and talking, though half the infants born with his disorder never see a first birthday. The editor that rewrote his DNA was delivered to his liver as messenger RNA \u2014 mRNA as the delivery truck rather than the vaccine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">None of those is a flu shot. All of them are the same chemistry \u2014 a strip of genetic code wrapped in a lipid nanoparticle \u2014 and none of them were what Kennedy was talking about when he defunded it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Partially as a result, Americans are falling behind. Moderna\u2019s combined Covid-and-flu shot is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biospace.com\/press-releases\/moderna-receives-european-commission-marketing-authorization-for-mcombriax-modernas-mrna-combination-vaccine-against-influenza-and-covid-19\">already licensed in Europe<\/a> while patients here wait for a resubmission. The Phase 3 trial of its H5 bird flu vaccine \u2014 the one meant to be ready if bird flu ever learns to spread between people \u2014 runs on money from <a href=\"https:\/\/cepi.net\/cepi-fund-pivotal-phase-3-trial-modernas-mrna-pandemic-influenza-candidate\">CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the British government<\/a>, after the administration killed a $760 million BARDA contract. \u201cThe United States invented this platform,\u201d Johns Hopkins RNA biologist Jeff Coller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/08\/06\/mflusiva-fda-mrna-flu-vaccine-rfk-jr\/\">wrote on Thursday<\/a>, \u201cand is the only country walking away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Of course, you need to actually get the vaccine<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">mFLUSIVA beat a standard-dose flu shot by 26.6 percent in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/moderna-mflusiva-mrna-flu-vaccine-fda-committee-vote\/823275\/\">40,700-person trial<\/a>. (Against flu bad enough to send someone to a doctor, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2516491\">figure was 33.7 percent<\/a> \u2014 an exploratory finding the trial wasn\u2019t built to prove, but that points in the same direction.) This is a better flu shot, but it hasn\u2019t solved flu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">There are issues with side effects: two-thirds of recipients reported injection-site pain, against 30 percent for the comparison. Most cleared in a day or two, but in a country where a quarter of the people who skip the flu shot cite side effects, that\u2019s not a minor problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And approval, unfortunately, isn\u2019t access. The CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory committee has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/04\/29\/hhs-appealing-acip-vaccine-policy-lawsuit-ruling\/\">frozen by a federal court since March<\/a>, so there is no clinical recommendation, which means insurers aren\u2019t required to cover mFLUSIVA at no cost. The $500 million in canceled contracts hasn\u2019t been restored. As Michael Osterholm, who runs the University of Minnesota\u2019s infectious disease center, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/influenza-vaccines\/double-reverse-fda-now-says-it-will-review-moderna-s-mrna-flu-vaccine\">put it<\/a> after the government reversed its mRNA decision in February: \u201cWe don\u2019t have any idea why they reversed course. That\u2019s part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The most optimistic reading is that nine independent experts appointed by this government looked at the evidence on mRNA and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/moderna-mflusiva-mrna-flu-vaccine-fda-committee-vote\/823275\/\">could not produce a single vote against it<\/a>. The more pessimistic one is that it took a refusal-to-file letter, a public outcry and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/03\/06\/fda-vinay-prasad-controversial-cber-director-leaving\/\">two senior departures<\/a> to get there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But here\u2019s what we do know: Some morning this fall a 58-year-old will roll up a sleeve at a CVS for a vaccine designed off a sequence rather than grown in an egg, and will think about none of this. That\u2019s more progress than I would have expected a year ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><em>A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/pages\/good-news-newsletter-signup\">Sign up here!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"_1tzd3in0 _10sa9om11\">\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in1\">You\u2019ve read <!-- -->1<!-- --> article<!-- --> in the last month<\/p>\n<div class=\"_1tzd3in2\">\n<div class=\"_1tzd3in3\">\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in4\">Here at Vox, we&#8217;re unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you \u2014 threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in4\">Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a<!-- --> <!-- -->Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in4\">We rely on readers like you \u2014 join us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"_1tzd3in5\"><img alt=\"Swati Sharma\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"59\" height=\"69\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"\/_next\/image?url=%2Fstatic-assets%2Fheadshots%2Fswati.png&amp;w=64&amp;q=75 1x, \/_next\/image?url=%2Fstatic-assets%2Fheadshots%2Fswati.png&amp;w=128&amp;q=75 2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/_next\/image?url=%2Fstatic-assets%2Fheadshots%2Fswati.png&amp;w=128&amp;q=75\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"_1tzd3in7\">\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in8\">Swati Sharma<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1tzd3in9\">Vox Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 5, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services canceled 22 mRNA vaccine projects worth roughly $500 million and told the country it would stop investing in the technology that had brought us life-saving Covid vaccines. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, claimed that the data showed these vaccines&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2254637573.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.75505681467%2C100%2C78.489886370659&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}