US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine

Re:US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine by amluto on Thursday May 29, 2025 @10:37AM (#44126549)

I would have liked to see some actual studies of whether multiple doses, over the course of years, of mRNA vaccines are a good idea. Take a look at:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adg7327

and related papers. Is the propensity to generate IgG4 antibodies specific to mRNA vaccines? Is it a problem? It seems entirely plausible that an mRNA flu vaccine would look amazing for one season and less amazing years later. Or not.

The COVID vaccine trials were very focused on the efficacy of a 1-3 dose series, in people with no previous immunity, at preventing disease or reducing its severity over a period of weeks to months after the vaccine series. This is not at all the situation with influenza or the situation now with COVID.

Compare to vaccines like MMR or Varicella, which were, and still are, studied over a period of many years.

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Re:US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine by boroboro4 on Thursday May 29, 2025 @12:38PM (#44127714)

This is fascinating study, thanks for sharing!

It definitely brings questions about repeated mRNA vaccinations (and mRNA therapies I guess then too?).

Good thing repeated boosters for COVID shouldn't affect other diseases if I understood the study correctly (since target protein is different). Can be an issue for flu vaccines for sure (or it's not since protein used slightly different year to year?).

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Re:US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine by matthewdgreen on Thursday May 29, 2025 @02:23PM (#44128754)

But answering this question is exactly why public funding is so important. If you're concerned about mRNA having long-term downsides, then continued government funding is exactly the right mechanism to force manufacturers to conduct the long-term studies you'd need to figure it out. It does not seem like it's necessarily in the manufacturer's interest to do these studies, if they're using their own funds and trying to turn a profit.

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Re:US cancels funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine by Izkata on Thursday May 29, 2025 @04:22PM (#44129961)

> Is the propensity to generate IgG4 antibodies specific to mRNA vaccines? Is it a problem? It seems entirely plausible that an mRNA flu vaccine would look amazing for one season and less amazing years later. Or not.

Flu vaccine effectiveness has been trending slowly downwards for about a decade. I don't recall any established reasons for it, though.

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