The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, mFLUSIVA. The approval comes despite growing vaccine skepticism, especially toward mRNA vaccines following Covid-19. But research shows that this new vaccine can produce a stronger immune response and be made faster than the traditional flu vaccine.
How does the mRNA vaccine differ from the traditional shot?
The approval of mFLUSIVA “demonstrates the continued strength and versatility of our mRNA platform,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a release. The vaccine was shown to be almost 27% more effective against the flu than the standard flu shot. The FDA has authorized mFLUSIVA for adults over the age of 50 after “documented superiority in effectiveness to normal dose flu vaccines,” particularly “for those with underlying diseases,” Jesse Goodman, the FDA’s former top vaccine regulator, said to The Washington Post.
Moving toward mRNA vaccines can make for a more effective and faster flu shot. Traditional vaccines are “typically generated in chicken eggs” and are “what we call an inactivated flu vaccine,” Hanover Matz, an immunologist at WashU Medicine in St. Louis and the coauthor of a June study comparing the mRNA vaccine to the traditional flu vaccine, said to Science News. Pieces of the virus “are used to teach your immune system how to fight flu,” and “because the virus is raised in chicken eggs, it takes a long time to generate that vaccine.” This method also requires policymakers to “determine what the most likely strains of the flu virus are going to be for the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere,” and they “need to start that production well before the fall to get the vaccine doses ready.” If “there’s a mismatch in strains, there’s really no way they can go back and update the vaccine and change it.”
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By contrast, the mRNA vaccine “contains three RNAs, which each encode the hemagglutinin protein of one of two influenza A strains and one influenza B strain,” said IFL Science. The genetic information “instructs the body to produce a fragment of a virus that then sets off the body’s immune response,” said The New York Times. Because the virus does not have to be produced in eggs, mRNA vaccines can be produced much faster and can be adjusted to “rapidly emerging new flu strains, a capacity we have not had before,” Georges C. Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, said to the Times.
What is the future of the mRNA vaccine?
Despite the benefits of the mRNA vaccine, it was not an easy route to approval. The mRNA technology, famously used in Covid-19 vaccines, has been the subject of widespread anti-vaccine misinformation campaigns. The FDA “refused to even review Moderna’s application for approval earlier this year, but quickly reversed course after a public outcry,” said the Times. In addition, the approval of mFLUSIVA is “likely to face pushback,” especially from some allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “who have expressed skepticism over mRNA-based coronavirus shots,” said the Post.
Those in favor of cite the FDA’s approval as a step in the right direction. The FDA is “signaling openness” to mRNA vaccines, Jeanne Marrazzo, the chief executive officer of the Infectious Disease Society of America, said to NPR. It “could set us up not only for improved response to a bad flu season but also to an improved response to any biological threats.” The flu “remains a significant public health challenge,” Bancel said in the release, and “mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America’s seniors.”
