August has been a groundbreaking month for preventing deadly diseases. New mRNA vaccines have the potential to fight the flu and a form of cancer. If they pan out, they could save thousands of American lives each year and billions of dollars in healthcare costs. Meanwhile, the Trump administration undermines trust in vaccines.
On Aug. 5, the Food and Drug Administration approved mFlusiva, an mRNA flu vaccine. In a trial of more than 40,000 adults 50 and older, it was about 27% more effective than a standard-dose flu shot.
Critically, the mRNA vaccine is more flexible on the fly. With traditional flu shots, manufacturers must guess which strains will be prevalent during an upcoming flu season. Sometimes they get it right; sometimes not. An mRNA vaccine can be redesigned and produced more quickly, giving manufacturers a later, better-informed idea of what is coming.
Two weeks after the mFlusiva announcement, Merck and Moderna announced that a new personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, given alongside the immunotherapy drug Keytruda, delayed the recurrence and spread of melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Doctors and scientists have searched for a cancer vaccine for at least a century. This is the first late-stage trial to show one can work.
While all that good news was coming out, President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting the list of vaccines recommended for all children from 17 diseases to 11. If parents follow that advice, they will leave kids vulnerable to diseases that nearly had been vanquished.
Recent measles outbreaks demonstrate the risk. As of Aug. 20, there had been 2,777 confirmed cases so far this year, including 55 in Washington. That is more than all of 2025.
Trump’s order also would split the MMR shot into three. No other country on Earth does that, no science supports it and it would create logistical challenges to immunizing kids.
The executive order caps a year of Trump administration retreat on mRNA. In August last year, the Department of Health and Human Services canceled 22 mRNA projects worth nearly $500 million.
Washington families should remember that Trump’s executive order does not override state rules. School immunization requirements stand. The West Coast Health Alliance — Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaiʻi — issues its own recommendations based on guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The choice remains an individual one: Take advantage of modern medical miracles or listen to the charlatans in the White House.
