After Covid, Researchers Turn mRNA Vaccines To Flu Shots

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

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4 Responses

  1. Michael Cain says:

    The biggest problem for moving the mRNA technology into other vaccines may be the storage conditions. The Pfizer vaccine is the pickiest — -70 °C and less than a week once thawed — but Moderna’s not that much better. It’s one thing in a pandemic where every dose they can deliver is oversubscribed. I understand that with current-gen flu vaccine, even with much less stringent storage requirements, many doses are discarded.Report

    • Kazzy in reply to Michael Cain says:

      Are the storage conditions inherent to the mRNA technology? Or is that something that future iterations of the technology may be able to address?

      As I understand it, the efficacy of the flu vaccine really varies based on a number of factors*. If the mRNA technology can dramatically improve that, it may be worth pursuing even with the storage challenges. If it won’t change that and is merely a fun way to use this shiny. new toy, then we probably don’t want to go down that path. Not yet, at least.

      * I’ve read that the development of this coming flu season’s vaccine may be hampered by the dramatically reduced number of flu cases scene during the pandemic. As I understand it, the scientists use the prior year’s strains to help predict the next year’s strains and they have very limited data. We’ll see what the eventual fallout of that is but if mRNA technology can help resolve that, that alone may make it worth it for this year at least.Report

    • JS in reply to Michael Cain says:

      Lots of freezer capacity just got installed, though, exactly for this.

      And mRNA tech has a lot of potential, and we just stress tested the crap out of it’s basic concept in terms of unforeseen problems.

      That doesn’t mean any given mRNA vaccine doesn’t need to be tested or can’t have problems, but we validated the underlying concept pretty thoroughly. A ridiculous wealth of data on efficacy, short and long term side effects, duration, etc. Creating mRNA vaccines is pretty fast once you’ve identified the target (the specific proteins or surface the vaccine is aimed at), and what we did in a year for COVID-19 could be done in half the time in the future now that a lot of basic data has been delivered.

      Effectively, we’re talking a highly modular vaccine framework where you can plug in the target you’re looking for easily, and then roll out.

      And looking ahead further, we might actually get something we can use against stuff like HIV — either as a vaccine or even a longer-term suppressant. Even bespoke cancer vaccines and therapies, targeted to your specific cancer profile.

      It’s a big, big deal and I suspect the CDC will be pushing to fund keeping those cryogenic storage and distribution methods as a worthwhile investment.Report

      • Michael Cain in reply to JS says:

        I didn’t mean to understate the potential of mRNA. Only that at this point in time, there are a number of new logistics problems to solve before you just casually drop into the grocery pharmacy any time between September and April and get your cheap flu shot.Report