vaccines
FDA refuses to review Moderna’s flu vaccine
The FDA refused to review Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine, the company said yesterday. It’s a surprising decision that could raise concerns about the agency’s posture toward drug companies and, of course, the administration’s policies on vaccines overall.
Moderna’s rejection is only the latest example of biologics director Vinay Prasad subjecting vaccines to harsher scrutiny than his predecessors; a notable policy position given health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s history as a vaccine critic. At the heart of the Moderna dispute is which existing influenza vaccine the company should have used as a control when testing the efficacy of its new shot, which utilizes the same mRNA technology as in its Covid-19 vaccine. Read more from STAT’s Matthew Herper and Helen Branswell.
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Confidence in safety of certain vaccines is dropping
In not unrelated news: Confidence in the safety of flu, Covid-19, and MMR vaccines appears to be dropping, new polling data from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center suggests. The findings, based on a survey conducted between Nov. 17 and Dec. 1, come at a time when full-throated endorsements of vaccines from federal health officials are so rare as to be newsworthy — even though the country is in the grips of multiple measles outbreaks and a bad flu season.
In the 2025 survey, 83% of adults said they think the MMR vaccine is safe; corresponding figures for flu and Covid vaccines sit at 80% and 65%, respectively. That was a 3 percentage point drop in confidence for both the MMR and flu vaccines as compared to 2024; there was no change vis-à-vis Covid shots. The decline in trust between 2025 and 2022 was sharper still, with 5 percentage point declines for MMR and flu vaccines and an 8 percentage point drop for Covid vaccine. — Helen Branswell
one big number
71%
That’s the percentage of baby food products that can be classified as ultra-processed foods, according to a study published today in Nutrients. And it’s not just that they’re ultra-processed, which STAT’s Sarah Todd and I agreed was not necessarily surprising. It’s that these ultra-processed products contained twice as much sugar as their counterparts, which also didn’t contain any added sugars. The ultra-processed baby foods were also consistently higher in sodium and generally more calorie dense.
The study looked particularly at “complementary foods,” meaning those fed to a baby who is still drinking breast milk or formula. Researchers analyzed 651 baby food products available in the spring of 2023 at grocery chains (think Walmart, Kroger, Publix, etc.) in Raleigh, N.C. A product was ultra-processed if it included at least one ingredient from a list of more than two dozen that range from fruit juice concentrates and gluten to foaming, gelling, and glazing agents.
It’s possible, the authors suggest, that eating ultra-processed foods during this period doesn’t just have a direct nutritional impact, but could shape a person’s taste preferences and dietary patterns. For more on how ultra-processed foods captured the baby and toddler market, re-visit another great Sarah story from last year.
