mRNA Flu Vaccine Approved a Year After Kennedy Killed Platform
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- HHS killed 22 mRNA vaccine development projects worth roughly $500 million on Aug. 5, 2025, with Kennedy claiming the data showed mRNA fails against respiratory infections and poses more risks than benefits.
- The FDA approved mFlusiva, the first licensed mRNA seasonal influenza vaccine, after its advisory committee voted unanimously twice—9-0—that its benefits outweigh risks in adults 50-64 and 65+.
- Moderna's June 30, 2025 Phase 3 trial of 40,805 adults across 11 countries showed mFlusiva outperformed a standard-dose flu shot by 26.6%, including in patients over 65—36 days before Kennedy's claim that the data showed mRNA fails.
- Vinay Prasad initially refused to review Moderna's application (Feb. 3) over a standard-dose vs. high-dose comparator issue that appears nowhere in the FDA's own influenza guidance; the FDA reversed 15 days later after public outcry without any change to the evidence.
- A Memorial Sloan Kettering Phase 1 study found pancreatic cancer patients whose immune systems responded to an individualized mRNA vaccine had ~90% survival at six years versus a baseline 13% five-year survival—the confirming randomized trial is precisely the research HHS cut.
- KJ, the first patient treated with a personalized gene-editing therapy for his ultra-rare mutation, was delivered as mRNA inside a lipid nanoparticle—the same chemistry the administration defunded—and is now walking and talking.
- Operation Warp Speed funded Moderna's mRNA Covid vaccine using NIH-designed sequences; published analyses credit Covid vaccination with preventing more than 3 million American deaths in its first two years.
Why it matters: Kennedy's August 2025 defunding of $500 million in mRNA projects coincided with—or preceded by 36 days—a 40,805-patient Phase 3 trial showing a 26.6% efficacy advantage over standard flu shots, and his FDA's own advisory committee just voted 9-0 twice that the resulting vaccine's benefits outweigh risks. The US invented the mRNA platform; a growing share of global mRNA programs now originates in China, meaning American defunding is shifting the field's center of gravity abroad while patients here lose access to promising cancer and rare-disease therapies.
