Delayed trial data reveal higher adverse events and negligible protection, raising new questions about the future of mRNA-based flu shots.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Pfizer’s highly anticipated mRNA flu vaccine, once touted as the next frontier in immunization technology, has failed to deliver the results the company promised to investors. According to Just the News, newly posted federal data show that the vaccine performed poorly among older adults—and only marginally better among younger participants—while triggering significantly more side effects than traditional flu shots.
The company quietly uploaded its long-delayed elderly cohort results to the ClinicalTrials.gov database this spring, more than a year past its public deadline, without issuing a press release or investor update. Meanwhile, Pfizer highlighted its under-65 findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, emphasizing modest efficacy but acknowledging the vaccine was “associated with more reactogenicity events.”
The full results tell a different story. In adults under 65, the mRNA vaccine prevented only a fraction of mild flu infections, with what critics described as a “statistically insignificant absolute difference of 0.32 percent.” That means roughly 300 people would need to be vaccinated to prevent a single case of mild illness, according to physician and investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, who detailed her analysis in a deep-dive review.
Demasi wrote that the mRNA shot caused “six times as many adverse events as infections prevented,” calling it “a manufacturer-funded trial written largely by Pfizer employees,” with results “adjudicated” at a Pfizer-run lab.
The elderly data were worse. Among roughly 27,000 participants aged 65 and older, there were 49 deaths among mRNA recipients compared to 46 among those given a standard flu shot, as well as sharp increases in kidney injuries and acute respiratory failure. Nearly 70 percent of elderly recipients experienced local injection-site reactions such as redness and swelling, while 59 percent reported systemic events including vomiting, chills, and muscle pain.
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson noted that Pfizer “broke its 2023 promise to investors to disclose results” and instead “stuck them in the virtual filing cabinet that is ClinicalTrials.gov.” Curiously, Pfizer’s own pipeline page still lists the flu vaccine as being in “Phase 2,” seemingly downplaying the completed Phase 3 trial now under scrutiny.
Other researchers have flagged questionable trial changes. One X user pointed out that Pfizer eliminated its age-combined “primary outcome measure” in July 2023, excluding the elderly altogether. Another noted that participants vaccinated for COVID within two weeks of enrollment were excluded, despite the CDC calling co-administration of shots “common clinical practice.”
Neither Pfizer nor the office of Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy responded to Just the News’s requests for comment on the findings.
The results come at a time when public trust in flu vaccines is already waning. Effectiveness for conventional shots fell to just 16 percent in the 2021–2022 season, and CDC data show that vaccination rates in 2023–2024 dropped to 55 percent among children and 45 percent among adults—the lowest since 2017.
In the end, the mRNA flu shot’s trial outcomes appear to confirm what many industry observers feared: an expensive, overhyped product offering little added benefit and significantly more risk. As Demasi summarized, “For every one mild flu-like illness the mRNA vaccine prevents, it causes more than 50 others to experience systemic flu-like symptoms.”
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