The US has just approved a new kind of flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology, which is the same tech used in the COVID vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This vaccine, called mFlusiva, is made by Moderna and has been shown to be around 27 percent more effective at protecting against the flu than a standard flu shot. It’s been approved for adults aged 50 to 65 and those over 65, but Moderna will need to run another clinical trial for the older group.
The way mRNA vaccines work is different from traditional flu vaccines. Instead of using egg-based, cell-culture based, or recombinant methods, mRNA vaccines use a piece of genetic material to teach the body’s cells to recognize and fight off viral proteins. This means they can be updated quickly to respond to new strains of a virus, which is a big advantage over traditional flu vaccines that have to be made six months in advance.
The approval of this new vaccine is a big deal, especially since the flu kills between 6,300 and 52,000 people each year in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone over six months old gets a flu shot every year, and this new vaccine provides another option for people to protect themselves. According to Ronald G. Nahass, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, “Vaccination saves lives,” and this new mRNA flu vaccine is welcome news as we head into flu season.