Flu Vaccine Was Not Very Effective This Season, the C.D.C. Says
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that this season’s flu vaccine offered little to no protection against mild to moderate flu.
The CDC said more than 3,600 Americans in seven states took part in the study. in the report that the vaccine was only 16 percent effective, which she said was “not statistically significant.”
“It’s not ineffective, but it’s clearly sub-optimal inefficiency,” Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, a former FDA chief scientist, said Thursday. “In 2020, scientists warned that the flu season, if severe, could combine with Covid to create a dreaded ‘tweendemia’.
Dr. Goodman said this season’s results showed how much better flu vaccines can be. Goodman, “so we need better vaccines.”
Every year scientists decide they need to update the flu vaccine to protect against the strains they predict will dominate the coming season.
The low level of effectiveness this season, according to Dr. Goodman, “suggests that there has been a mismatch between the strains of the virus in the vaccine and what is circulating.”
Scientists updated The report says this season’s vaccines provide protection against four influenza viruses, including H3N2, which eventually became the season’s dominant strain. H3N2 also dominated during the 2017-18 flu season, which experts said was “moderately severe.”
Since the founding of the agency vaccine effectiveness calculation in 2004, the efficiency rate reached 60 percent in the 2010-2011 season, and only 10 percent during the first season the CDC tracked. Dr. Goodman said he thinks 50 to 80 percent is good.
flu life-threatening respiratory disease that can fill hospital beds. He shares symptoms with Covid, including fever, cough, sore throat, and fatigue. Adults 65 and older, pregnant women, immunocompromised people, and children under 5 years of age are most at risk of flu.
