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Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 copilot. For a scientific American science quickly, I'm Kendra Pier Lewis, in for Rachel

Feldman.

You're listening to our weekly science news roundup.

Let's start off with a vaccine 180.

In a sudden turn of events last Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed

to review Moderna's new MRNA flu vaccine, according to the company.

The announcement came roughly a week after Moderna revealed that the FDA had rejected its application.

The company said the agency originally called the plan for the vaccine's face-through trials acceptable,

but its position changed after top FDA official Vene Prasad overruled the agency's reviewers, according to stat.

Moderna's press release about the rejection said the FDA had declared the company's study not adequate and well-controlled.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, told Sidrap News that, quote,

the trial design they used is essentially the trial design that every single flu vaccine has used.

In the aftermath of their original refusal, Bloomberg reported that Moderna's chief executive officer, Stefan Bancel, deemed the

agency unpredictable. He said that if the FDA continues to behave this way, it, quote,

threatens U.S. leadership in innovative medicines. Speaking of innovative medicines, a new study

published last Thursday described a single vaccine that could offer protection

against multiple respiratory illnesses at the same time. An extra perk? The vaccine would be

inhaled, no needles necessary. The work led by a Stanford University researcher and published

...