The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced recently it will not review Moderna's

M RNA flu vaccine despite late-stage trials showing it was safe and effective.

The rejection of the experimental flu application, at least for now, has many in and outside

the industry concerned about the Trump administration's approach to vaccine development

and recommendations.

It's the latest move that reflects health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s criticism of

MRNA technology, which was used by Moderna and Pfizer to combat the coronavirus.

Michael Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and he joins me now.

Dr. Osterholm, welcome back to the NewsHour. Thanks for being with us.

Thank you very much.

So let's start with Moderna's flu vaccine.

For those who don't follow this very closely, why exactly is this decision causing some concern?

Well, first of all, let me just say that the work that was done by Moderna actually was really

well done and should have been reviewed.

It's an important step forward to have an MRA vaccine for influenza.

What happened was despite the vast majority of the FDA staff supporting it, a single individual,

Dr. Prasad, basically decided against approving it

coming forward. And this chills up the spines of all of us in public health and the vaccine

work because it's so arbitrary. There was absolutely no basis for which to do this. And this

really leaves other manufacturers concerned about what might their future

directions be in terms of confusion and recommendations.

So just for context, Geron, you mentioned there's one FDA official who overruled career

...