Moderna CEO promises triple combo corona/flu/RSV mRNA vaccine by 2023

One shot, two shot; red shot, blue shot. The vaccines might not have been successful in slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 one iota, but they were successful in earning profits for the manufacturers. Logically, they would like to repeat this pleasurable experience with other viruses — safety, past failures, and common sense be damned.

If you like the success of the mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in stopping the virus, you will love the slate of new mRNA vaccines coming to a neighborhood near you, according to Moderna’s CEO. Once upon a time, we could rely on our government and even the pharmaceutical companies to abort efforts to pursue failed vaccines when they proved to be dangerous during clinical trials, such as with the attempted dengue fever and RSV vaccines. Now that they plan to develop more vaccines by 2023, do you really have the confidence that they will still act upon dangerous safety signals?

During a World Economic Forum panel discussion last week titled, “COVID-19: What’s Next?” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel revealed (at 7:20) the next step of the vaccine wars:

And the other piece we’re working on is for 2023 is how do we make it possible from a societal standpoint that people want to be vaccinated. And we’re trying to do this by preparing combinations, we’re working on the flu vaccine, we’re working on an RSV vaccine, and our goal is to be able to have a single annual booster, so that we don’t have compliance issues, where people don’t want to get two to three shots a winter, but they get one dose, where they get a booster for corona, and a booster for flu and RSV, to make sure that people get their vaccine.

When moderator Francine Lacqua asked Bancel how close the company is to achieving this goal, here was his response:

“So the RSV program is now in Phase 3, the flu program is in Phase 2 and soon in Phase 3, I hope as soon as second quarter of this year. So the best-case scenario would be the fall of 2023, as a best-case scenario, I don’t think it would be in every country, but we believe it’s possible to operate in some countries next year.” – READ MORE