Tag: Greta Van Susteren

Is This Year’s Flu Shot Only 9% Effective?

Why do some people think that this year’s flu shot is only 9% effective?

A statement or tweet from the CDC?

The CDC has not released any information on the effectiveness of this year's flu shot yet.
The CDC has not released any information on the effectiveness of this year’s flu shot yet.

Not exactly…

Is This Year’s Flu Shot Only 9% Effective?

As the 2019-20 flu season is just getting started, we don’t actually know how effective this year’s flu vaccine will be…

She was tweeting an old story about last year's flu vaccine and the 9% number was just about one strain in the vaccine. The adjusted overall vaccine effectiveness for the 2018-19 flu vaccine was actually 47%.
Greta Van Susteren was tweeting an old story about last year’s flu vaccine and the 9% number was just about one strain in the vaccine. The adjusted overall vaccine effectiveness for the 2018-19 flu vaccine was actually 47%.

Early estimates are typically posted in mid-February.

Will we get this year’s flu vaccine effectiveness estimates early because flu season started early?

As some predicted, the circulating H3N2 strains are of a different clade than the ones in the vaccine though…

Will it help that all circulating strains are antigenically similar to the flu virus strains in this year’s flu vaccine?

Or that we are seeing more flu B this year?

During the 2017-18 flu season, the flu vaccine worked much better against flu B strains.

We don’t typically talk about flu vaccine effectiveness against flu B strains because they aren’t a big part of our flu seasons, but in general, flu vaccines work well against flu B.

“In general, current flu vaccines tend to work better against influenza B and influenza A(H1N1) viruses and offer lower protection against influenza A(H3N2) viruses.”

Vaccine Effectiveness: How Well Do the Flu Vaccines Work?

In fact, they often work better against flu B than against other strains, so maybe it will turn out to be a good thing if we see more flu B than H3N2 this year…

The flu vaccine has many benefits besides preventing you from getting the flu.
The flu vaccine has many benefits besides preventing you from getting the flu.

But most importantly, we know that the flu vaccine has many benefits and few side effects, so even when it isn’t a perfect match it makes sense to get vaccinated and protected.

And know that until we get a better, universal flu vaccine, folks should know that talk about flu vaccine effectiveness is largely academic, as a yearly flu vaccine remains the best way to protect yourself from getting the flu and developing serious complications from the flu.

More on Flu Vaccine Effectiveness