Next year's flu vaccine may get total overhaul

[flashl]

All three flu viruses in this year's vaccine should be swapped for others next year because of a dramatic change in the mix of circulating flu bugs, a U.S. government advisory panel is expected to recommend Thursday.

The change, first proposed last week by the World Health Organization (WHO), marks the first time in years that health experts advocate a complete vaccine overhaul. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will vote on the recommendation Thursday. "I can't remember when we've changed all three," says Norman Baylor, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccine Research and Review.

Typically, public health officials recommend replacing one or two of the three viruses in the vaccine, because dominant flu viruses tend to circulate for a year or two before giving way to a new strain.

Deciding which viruses to include in each year's vaccine is a complicated task, Baylor says. It involves crunching information from 80 WHO collaborating labs worldwide to predict which of the viruses circulating during the winter in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere are likely to cause serious illness in the Northern Hemisphere.

USA Today

[TomInTib]

1. Well, this year's vaccine sure worked like a charm, didn't it?

I will never understand why perfectly healthy people get flu shots.

I have never had one and I last had the flu in 1968. And I am out in the public every day and every night.

[chicagomd]

2. And here we go again....

Here is why even the "perfectly healthy" should get flu shots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

"Many of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients."

Additionally, if you become infected and only suffer from minimal symptoms then go "out in the public every day and every night", you expose and potentially infect those who can suffer the most from infection.

[TomInTib]

3. Heck, I never get anything.

I did have a cold a month in a half ago.

Lasted two days and it was the first since I got out of the Navy 35 years ago.

But I am fortunate enough to live in one of the healthiest communities on the planet.

I also wore the same pair of hard contact lenses for seven years and never cleaned them other than rinsing them in Saline.

I just don't get sick.

[trotsky]

4. You most certainly do "get" lots of things.

Living on this planet, your body does get infected and you are fortunate that it fights off the infection without troubling you with symptoms.

But that makes you even more dangerous to others - you're feeling fine and are able to run around exposing the crud to everyone while others feel like crap and stay at home.

[TomInTib]

5. Maybe I should stay at home during flu season.

I have wondered about that in the past, and I would hate to think that I might unknowingly spread something.

Maybe I will just hang out onstage and not mingle at the bar.

[cosmik debris]

6. Please, let me explain.

"I will never understand why perfectly healthy people get flu shots."

Because we don't want to spread disease to our relatives, loved ones, and neighbors.

Because we have a social conscience that tells us to PREVENT epidemics, not PROMOTE them.

Because we are not foolish enough to believe that just because it never has happened that it never will happen.

But most of all, because when the flu does catch up with you it will hit you like a ton of bricks and we want to sit around scratching our heads asking "Why don't people who are so vulnerable get a flu shot?" :)

[dropkickpa]

8. I'm perfectly healthy

But I get vaccinated every year for several reasons. First and foremost is that I am very susceptable to the flu, and when I get it, I get it BAD (always end up with pneumonia on top of it). I've missed getting vaxed 2x in the last ten years, and got that lovely effect in return for my laziness. Second, I work in a building where people with compromised immune systems go, so I want to protect them. Third, I have young children in my family who I see often, I want to protect them. My mother is not in the best of health, so I want to protect her as much as I can.

There are selfish reasons in there for me getting vaccinated, but there are many more reasons for me to do it. I care about my family and other people in general, and if a measly little shot can help protect them, why the hell not?

[TZ]

7. Please note that many people who got the flu shot

have reduced symptoms even if they do get sick. Believe me if people hadn't gotten vaccinated it would have been 10x worse.
I got fluMist and I have yet to have a sniffle or flu like symptom