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FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

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21–30 of 134 posts

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#21
post #17

Don't want to sign up. Are we not going to get a flu vaccine? Companies that make the vaccines can't do this on their own anyway?

The flu vaccines target specific strains that they expect to be common during flu season. In order to do this, the FDA collaborates with a bunch of different agencies and groups around the world to do collect data, track flu viruses etc. The sort of thing that a government agency is generally really good at doing and companies are generally really bad at.

Normally it's around this time period that decisions around which strains to target are discussed, because it takes around six months to incubate the vaccine. Then once a decision is made, that information is passed to manufacturers.

Without this meeting, there's no guidance around which strains to target. Without guidance, manufacturers have no clue what to do. So the odds are it either highly delays the vaccine if not promptly rescheduled or we simply just don't get one this season.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#22
post #18

This is a remarkably stupid decision. Flu vaccines are incredibly successful not just from a public health standpoint but also a business productivity standpoint. I guess we're going to relearn this lesson the hard way. Especially with businesses also demanding people come back to the office to work.

> Flu vaccines are incredibly successfu A big part of the problem is a lot of people don't understand this. How often do you hear people say, "I got the flu vaccine and still got the flu". However, most people who say they have "the flu" are using the term colloquially and it is unlikely that they actually had influenza. Further, as we saw with the COVID vaccines, people are incapable of understanding that vaccines d…

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Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#23
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They want your money. Nothing to do with MAGA. They “cut” federal spending and fire people from their jobs while MElon makes $100b since December.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

If a bunch of old people on Social Security die several years early due to influenza... Yay! They saved money and extended Social Security! Or can raid it for other things...

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#24

Is there a strategy here, or is this all emotional. Or is the strategy like, we can reduce social security spending if more old people die of the flu? This isn't entirely cynical, I do assume there are some pragmatists who might think this way.

It's about encouraging the free market. Drug makers will naturally compete and it's up to the American public to reward the flu shot with the most efficacy, or in some cases, not take a shot at all and rely on natural immunization. This will spur competition and bring prices down.

At least that's what this forum has taught me.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They want your money. Nothing to do with MAGA. They “cut” federal spending and fire people from their jobs while MElon makes $100b since December.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

It’s a collusion to create chaos and dismantle the system that can track what they are doing. You think “flu vaccine”, they steal elsewhere. Today a vaccine, last week an email to justify jobs, earlier USAID, next week something else. It’s a distraction.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#26

This is a remarkably stupid decision. Flu vaccines are incredibly successful not just from a public health standpoint but also a business productivity standpoint. I guess we're going to relearn this lesson the hard way. Especially with businesses also demanding people come back to the office to work.

Hopefully we do relearn, and don't just unlearn.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#27

Presumably it may be rescheduled? Let's say personnel is in flux at the moment. Might make sense to bump out an important meeting until things stabilize? There is so much breathless hysteria in the media predicting or implying a prediction, and when 99% of it fails to materialize there is never a follow up.

Well considering the FDA gave no information or plans to reschedule to committee members that seems unlikely. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/fda-flu-vacci... > The F.D.A. sent an email to members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a senior official familiar with the decision. There was no reason given.…

> “So one can only assume”

They are “assuming” a major unannounced policy change based on… a single meeting cancelation. By this cause/effect protocol, I have personally witnessed dozens of multi billion dollar project cancellations, or so I assume.

RFK Jr has never proposed canning the vaccine program. He wants certain studies performed, which presumably would run in parallel with the existing program.

The constant hysteria really makes me want to quit the internet. It seems to get worse every year.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#29

Is there a strategy here, or is this all emotional. Or is the strategy like, we can reduce social security spending if more old people die of the flu? This isn't entirely cynical, I do assume there are some pragmatists who might think this way.

We simply now have a completely nuts anti-vax Secretary of Health. He probably actually thinks he's saving people from vaccine injury.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#30

Presumably it may be rescheduled? Let's say personnel is in flux at the moment. Might make sense to bump out an important meeting until things stabilize? There is so much breathless hysteria in the media predicting or implying a prediction, and when 99% of it fails to materialize there is never a follow up.

you don't cancel something on short notice and not provide a follow up date. That's not the way any of this works. It's not "breathless", they literally picked an antivaxxer to head up the US government's health agency. That's not breathless either, it's a fact, backed by years of evidence. They are trying to dismantle all programs that help the general populace. The people heading up this charge want everything to be in the hands of private millionaires and billionaires. Merely look at whom was picked to head up this stuff. I don't think anyone paying attention can miss something so obvious
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