Moderna's new mRNA-based flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, demonstrated a 27 percent higher efficacy rate in preventing influenza infections compared to the standard flu shot in a trial with nearly 41,000 participants aged 50 and older.
Mark Davis, a microbiology and immunology professor at Stanford, emphasized that the current flu vaccine has shown effectiveness rates between 20% and 80%, mainly due to immunity being largely directed towards a single strain. He indicated this limitation poses a significant challenge as various flu strains circulate annually, thus necessitating innovative approaches to enhance vaccine efficacy across many more variants.