Without a strong enough vaccine, the pandemic-weary country could experience a severe flu season just as it emerges from fighting the coronavirus. | Ted S. Warren/AP Photo.
Once doors start opening again and people venture out without taking a year’s worth of Covid-19 precautions, it’s possible there could be new strains of the flu circulating that scientists didn't anticipate, said Cody Meissner, an infectious disease specialist and pediatrician at Tufts Children’s Hospital who also serves on the FDA vaccine advisory panel.
“What we asked them during that meeting was, ‘Has there ever been a moment like this one?’ Where there was very little flu circulating, which one can then make a judgement about what then happened the following year, but this really is unprecedented,” said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the FDA vaccine advisory panel.
At the Northern Hemisphere meeting in February, experts review what strains are then circulating in the Southern Hemisphere as it approaches autumn — and use that information to interpret which strains might hit the northern part of the globe months later. In the United States, the FDA vaccine advisory committee reviews those recommendations and makes a final decision about the makeup of the flu vaccines the agency will license.
That previous low year did not seem to lead to particularly bad flu season in 2012-13, Talaat said, adding that the vaccine effectiveness that year was in line with or better than most years. She said it is too early to know what the flu season next fall will look like or to predict what the likely effectiveness of the flu vaccine is.
“The belief is that there was enough circulating virus to be able to pick what is likely to be the strains that are associated with next year's flu outbreak,” Offit said.
Just get the damn flu shot!!! Jeeze POLITCO!! Give us a break out here!!
'Backfire' is definitely the wrong word to use here. Elimination of an entire flu season is such a positive, and something that's actually happened, that it's well worth making the forecasting for the next season more difficult. It also demonstrated effective measures to use.
The solution is to wear masks again next winter. Our masks have protected us from the 'flu and other viruses.
with all the better ventilation and people washing their hands and probably many still wearing masks in public I bet next years flu season will be minuscule, too.
Or: it could make it harder for flu to mutate (which mostly happens when it reproduces a lot), so the existing vaccine would still be *mostly* effective. Plus, the new tech used for creating COVID vaxes and treat serious cases gets used to modify/recreate flu vaccines as well.
Can't we ever just feel positive about the future for a single minute?
Maybe the lesson here is that we can co tell the flu through wearing masks and social distancing in crowded public areas thus lessening the need for an uber effective flu shot
great.
Great, thx for the good news. /s 😷
Not taking any vaccine PERIOD