Europe—not US—first to authorize Moderna's combo mRNA flu-COVID vaccine
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/europe-not-us-first-to-authorize-modernas-combo-mrna-flu-covid-vaccine/Open linkView original on lemmy.world506
Comments47https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/europe-not-us-first-to-authorize-modernas-combo-mrna-flu-covid-vaccine/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
The US won’t even look at mRNA vaccines anymore.
I don’t need a flu or a COVID vaccine if I die of measles first!
or when the next new NOVEL coranvirus hits, remember the 1st one, it was too lethal and burned itself out.
RFK Jr's worms isnt.
Of course.
Goddamnit, Donald.
You get what you vote for
That is factually untrue in most respects.
Ours is not a representative democracy, if you look past a surface level analysis of American politics and read up on just how strong the correlation between public opinion and our governance actually is in reality.
Just saying that if the other party had won the stance on science and the leadership of the department of health and human services would have been minutely different.
Minutely is the correct word.
When we elect Democrats, the major difference is that the regressive movements progress more strongly at the state level, and the Dems we elected claim to be powerless to stop it. (Which we know is untrue because we've seen Donald wield near unilateral executive power.)
At the end of the day there is such little material difference between Democrats and Republicans that a growing segment of the population sees no use in missing a day's pay to vote.
This is why I think it's a tad incorrect to say "you get what you vote for". Because we really don't.
I used understatement. The current course it's so blindingly stupid that a 2x4 could've done a better job at governance.
But if you want to see things otherwise feel free, it's one of the few freedoms that won't get disrespected by the twat in chief.
How do you know that FlashMobOfOne voted for trump?
Because they didn't take five seconds and look at my profile.
He was very vocal against Harris during the elections
True.
Also predicted in September 2024 that she would fail and they'd blame the Greens. And I was right.
US has a sewage goblin for its top health official... So that's not surprising.
Racoon penis fondling sewage goblin.
Anyone actually surprized by this? The US is currently heading backwards on so many fronts, they are basically a country-sized time machine heading back to the "better" times when gay people were just killed, women had no rights, and black people were slaves.
I am so glad they specified "not US", I almost thought that by "Europe" they actually meant "US"
As an American I appreciate the friendly, and unfriendly, reminders that we not only dropped the ball, we walked away from it.
Do you ever read US as us, assertively?
It makes sense as they want to emphacise an American company is late in their home market where they can charge more per shot.
The US being behind civilised parts of the world?
I'm shocked... /s
Anyone know much about the efficacy of the flu part of it? Says it's more effective than existing ones but is this the revolutionary flu shot that takes us out of the yearly flu vaccine rat race or not that far yet?
Is the "revolutionary flu shot" even feasible at the moment?
From the little I understand about the topic, our hopes of getting rid of the flu are pretty much none until vaccines for the constantly adapting flu virus are very cheap and very quick to develop/deploy. Until then, the virus will simply adapt to the old vaccines quicker than we can counter it.
I thought there was an effort to target a not-so-easy to change part of the virus. Maybe I've been dreaming. Either way the yearly shot, mRNA or otherwise is much more profitable so a one-and-done vaccine won't appear out of Moderna of Pfizer, that's for sure.
The whole not easy to change part can be a little misleading too. They originally thought that was the case with covid vaccines and it turned out that was not the case. Turns out when there's pressure, sometimes things actually can happen.
As if the companies would think long term instead of yearly profit... whoever comes up with a one and done flu vaccine will see an enormous (if short) spike in profits and shareholders will want that spike to sell at the highest price possible and maybe get some dividends along the way.
the flu basically has one of the highest mutation rate, only HIV is higher. they do it in 3 parts, antigenic shift, genetic drift, and recombination, the last one makes it more dangerous, they can recombine with more than 1 different strain to make a new one, that was the case with h1n1.
A full cohort study would have to be made to attest to that. But guessing from the efficacies of the corona vax, probably not a drastic difference.
Not a chance. As the flu virus mutates every so often, new vaccines will have to be made to adapt to the current epidemiology. It is a circular race.
Flu and corona are both "common cold type" viruses defeating resistance in some way. For coronaviruses that method is stopping the body from building effective resistance by all means possible, so that is why vaccines tend to not work too well.
For the flu it's the many variations and its tendency to change further and need new antibodies.
So I don't think a specific flu strain is hard to make a very effective vaccine for, but ofc this doesn't yet solve the flu problem.
The immense speed at which mRNA vaccines can be developed might improve that in the future, where this here could be one of many steps to get regulatory approval for blanket mrna and actually be permitted to change them at that pace.
In principle mRNA should let you crank you vaccines for new diseases/flu-strains in under a week. If this can fully stop the flu?... I doubt it. Whatever does solve it will probably make use of this tech though.
No. Flu, COVID, and the common cold are caused by different viruses that all lead to respiratory illnesses; influenzaviruses, coronaviruses and rhinoviruses respectively. These viruses target their own set of receptors and have their own mechanisms for multiplying. One technique used against one of them may not work on the other.
In theory, I agree that mrna could be faster; if there's some change in part of the virus, you can just edit the mrna sequence to reflect that change and ship it back to production instead of starting again from scratch. Will the logistics and the economics follow the theory? I guess we'll see.
It works as well as existing flu shots, which rely of an educated guess on which flu strain will hit NA in the fall. This dual vaccine is just convenient.
Humanity will find the cure for cancer and conspiracy theorists will oppose it referencing the plot of Deus Ex
The plot point from the deus ex series that sticks out to me was in Human Revolution where they started converting warehouses into concentration camps, but what do I know?
...... Don't go to the LIMB clinic to fix your glitches.....
So Americans are getting two jabs still instead of one?
If they get any at all.
Two scoops of horse paste.
And there was much rejoicing.
But there was no joy in Mudville.
Why even bother mentioning the US in the headline? They're irrelevant.
I assume because of all the "warp speed" stuff and Moderna getting big from it during covid, in the us at least.
It's a good to keep mentioning when the US does stuff like this as a warning of how quickly a corrupt country can implode.
American approval of RaccoonPeen™ is imminent.
Ask your doctor if RaccoonPeen™ is right for you.
sigh.
Please come to Canada. I hate getting needles. I do it, but this would make things so much easier than 2 shots
Looks like the application was submitted in Canada in January 2026
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drug-health-product-review-approval/submissions-under-review/new-drug-submissions-under-review.html