🧪 The Food and Drug Administration has refused to review an application from the biotech company Moderna to approve its mRNA-based flu vaccine. The agency’s decision, which Moderna announced in a press release on Feb. 10, 2026, is the latest step in efforts by federal health officials under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to disrupt longstanding public health practices relating to vaccine access and approval, as well as to reshape the public’s perception of vaccine safety. Vaccines based on mRNA came to the forefront in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but researchers are now using the technology to create other vaccines, as well as treatments for diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. The Nobel Prize-winning technology may be especially promising for flu because vaccines can be developed rapidly each season to match mutating influenza strains. However, Kennedy and other federal health officials, including at the FDA, have expressed part...