This looks like stock manipulation:
On February 10, Trump's FDA oddly declined to review Moderna's new flu vaccine. The stock then dropped from 37.95 to 32.22.
Then Moderna announced that this surprising move was "inconsistent with previous written communications" with the FDA, and they were now sorting this out. News then broke that the FDA would now review the vaccine, and sure enough, the stock is now back up.
If someone wanted to earn big on trading Moderna, this is what they would do.
Here's a summary I put together on the tensions within the FDA, scientists vs Prasad & Makary & Kennedy.
They were demanding, in spite of previous agreements otherwise, a redo with high-dose flu vaccines in the control arm.
That is (a) medically inappropriate for trial participants under 65, and (b) not even legally available in Europe, where some of the trial took place.
The agreement to review schedules it for August 5, likely too late for manufacturing to ramp up for the 2026-2027 flu season.
And Makary said on Fox, apparently flirting with libel, that the trial was "unethical" for having obeyed previous FDA advice.
@randahl Mafia Don has been manipulating the market since day one. He is above the law.
@randahl someone tend to tell friends when and what... kind of boosting look what I can do...
@randahl this whole administration is a pump and dump scheme
@energisch_ added. Thank you.
@randahl the trump regime has a long history of market manipulation for his personal gain...
@randahl I hope someone reaches 110 years and has enough time to spend around 30 years in prison.
@randahl Hello friend Greetings 🌺
How are you doing today hope you’re feeling well and your family? You are having a direct text from Elon.
@randahl Maybe. Other plausible explanations include infighting at the FDA (which has been reported in other contexts, too), and a strategic retreat after severe blowback, like Trump is doing in Minnesota. And the company wisely gave them a plausible justification to recalibrate. While it's tempting, and far from irrational, to attribute everything this administration does to greed and malice, sometimes it's just pettiness and ineptitude.
A more likely explanation is Trump's regime using regulatory bodies to extract bribes... ahem... campaign finance from corporations
Trump believes the government's role is extracting rents & concessions from the economy, otherwise he'll hold up approvals
He did it with TikTok with a billionaire bidding war
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/23/how-the-tiktok-deal-could-tighten-trumps-cultural-grip-00744497
He's doing it for private school vouchers
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/15/politics/trump-religious-liberty-commission-church-state-separation
He's doing it with Gaza
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-5719053/trump-gathers-members-board-of-peace-first-meeting
It's public corruption
