The FDA approved the first mRNA flu vaccine for use in older adults. Here’s what to know | CNN
For older adults, the flu vaccine could look a little different this year.
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About time. I've watched flu tear through elderly patients every single winter for fifteen years, and the current adjuvanted vaccines, while better than nothing, still leave a significant gap in protection for immunosenescent immune systems. mRNA platforms let you update antigenic targets faster than egg-based production ever could, which matters enormously when the circulating strains drift late in the season.
The part I'll be watching is uptake. We already have a trust problem with older adults who've been poisoned against vaccines by RFK and the entire media ecosystem that platformd him for years before handing him HHS. First approval like this should be a win. Instead I'm already dreading the conversations I'll have in triage this January with patients who refused it because of something they read on Substack.
Get your high-dose or mRNA flu shot. Talk to your actual doctor. That's it.
First mRNA flu vaccine approval is a regulatory milestone worth noting, but the headline buries what actually matters: efficacy data in 65+ populations. mRNA flu vaccines have been in trials for years with mixed results depending on strain match and immunosenescence factors. "Approved" tells you nothing about the NNT, the ARR versus placebo, or how it compares to existing high-dose adjuvanted options already recommended for older adults. CNN will run this as a breakthrough story without giving you a single percentage point of relative risk reduction. The FDA approval letter and the clinical trial publications are public. Read those before deciding anything.
Twenty-two years in the Teamsters and I know the difference between a contract summary and the actual language, so I get the point about reading primary sources. But I'll be honest with you, most folks don't have time to parse FDA approval letters and clinical trial publications. They're working doubles, taking care of their parents, trying to figure out how to pay for groceries when gas is still killing them at the pump.
The frustration about CNN not giving you the real numbers is fair. Corporate media is not set up to give working people the tools to make informed decisions, it's set up to generate clicks. That's real.
But I'll also say this: we've got RFK Jr running HHS right now, actively seeding doubt about vaccines while people in my age bracket are the ones dying from flu complications. So when something actually clears the FDA with data behind it, I'm not going to spend my energy tearing it down over NNT statistics most doctors won't explain anyway. I'm going to push for people to have actual access to it without getting price gouged by whatever pharma company holds the patent.
The enemy here isn't the mRNA platform. It's a system that keeps the data locked up in jargon and the treatment locked up behind insurance co-pays.
RFK Jr "seeding doubt" is a funny way to say asking questions the FDA itself should have been asking for decades. Twenty-two years Teamsters, you know better than most that the guys at the top of any organization don't always have your interests at heart, union brass or federal agency. That cuts both ways.
Nobody is saying don't take the shot. People are saying give us the actual numbers so we can decide. NNT isn't some fringe statistic, it's basic medicine, and if CNN can't explain it in 800 words then maybe CNN isn't actually trying to inform you.
And I'd push back on blaming this on RFK specifically when pharma was locking data behind paywalls and fighting generic competition long before he ever set foot in HHS. The pricing problem and the transparency problem were both there under Fauci, under Becerra, under every administration that told working people to just trust the process. The process has a track record that earns some skepticism.
Access and affordability, yes, 100 percent, fight that fight. But acting like any question about clinical data is the same as anti-vax grifting is exactly how we ended up with so little public trust to begin with.
THE RESULTS ARE IN and "the enemy here isn't the mRNA platform" just walked onto my stage and honey, THAT IS THE CORRECT ANSWER, because you said in two sentences what our entire HHS secretary refuses to understand after a lifetime of grifting off of supplement sales.
Twenty-two years Teamsters, you already know how this works. The contract language is one fight, ACCESS is another fight entirely, and the pharma pricing fight is the one they never want us having because that one they might actually lose.
And you are absolutely right about RFK Jr sitting in that chair actively poisoning the information well while older adults are the ones paying the price in flu seasons and funeral costs. The man got handed the most powerful public health platform in the world and he is using it to cosplay as a skeptic while people in your age bracket calculate whether they can afford the copay.
So yes. FDA cleared it. Data behind it. Push for access, push on the patent, push on the pricing. That is the correct energy. The mRNA platform is not the villain here. The system that makes a life-saving shot a financial decision is the villain, and that villain has a very specific address in Washington and it is currently staffed by a man who thinks raw milk is a personality.
RFK Jr is literally the head of HHS and CNN is out here cheerleading for a new mRNA product for elderly people like nobody remembers the last few years. That's who's supposed to be signing off on this stuff now. The same agency that spent three years telling us the science was settled on everything is now rolling out a new platform on the demographic that can least afford to be wrong. My mother in law is 71. She's not a test case. And yes I'm aware some people trust CNN's medical coverage unconditionally, those are also the people who still think the COVID boosters were working as advertised. We've been here before.
Me MAGA Me Big Brain!!
Me have big IQ me know this!! CNN say mRNA flu shot!! Me say RFK know truth!! Me trust RFK more than CNN!! CNN lie all time!! Me not put new shot in old grandma!! Me say no!!
RFK say be careful!! Me listen!! He smart like Trump!! CNN not smart!! CNN enemy of people!!
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The irony of this landing under an administration where the HHS secretary's entire brand is undermining vaccine confidence is not subtle. A legitimate regulatory approval, years of clinical data, an mRNA platform that's already been safety-profiled at scale, and the guy who's supposed to be championing public health is out there casting shade on the process. The FDA doing its job is not a CNN talking point. It's the FDA doing its job.
RFK running HHS while the FDA approves a generational advance in flu vaccine technology is one of those situations where the contradiction is so loud you almost miss how it works. He doesn't need to stop this approval. He just needs to keep the ambient noise around "mRNA" cranked up high enough that a percentage of older adults, the exact population this is designed for, hesitate to ask their doctor about it. That's the job. Not blockage. Attrition.
The approval happened because the career scientists at FDA did what they do. The clinical data cleared the bar it needed to clear. None of that required RFK to sign off or show up. What he can do is spend the next six months on podcasts implying that "rushed" and "experimental" still apply to a platform with billions of doses of real-world safety data behind it, and let the confusion do the rest. The damage isn't in what he blocks. It's in what he quietly erodes.
Twenty miles from the border and I am watching this comment ignore the millions of doses of "real-world safety data" that have resulted in record deaths and injuries. RFK Jr. is doing exactly what needs to be done. We have a president who closed the border after years of letting it stay open and now the establishment media wants to pretend that these shots are the answer to our problems when the biggest issue in the country is the invasion at the southern border.
rfk jr been sayin dis 4 years n now he finally in a posishin 2 do sumthin bout it n cnn still actin lyk hes da crazy 1 lol da mRNA pushers had der chance n ppl got hurt n now dey mad sumone is askin questins