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Can you really contract the flu by taking the vaccine?: Everything you need to know about this year's flu vaccine
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Scientists work year-round to provide flu vaccines every February in the hopes of saving lives, but why does it take so long? Why can't they just make a giant batch and freeze them until flu-season? What does the creation of a flu vaccine really entail?
Highlights
CALIFORNIA NETWORK (https://www.youtube.com/c/californianetwork)
10/20/2015 (9 years ago)
Published in Health
Keywords: flu, vaccine, Sanofi Pasteur, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, flu shot, strains, ClaxoSmithKline, William Schaffner, influenza, World Health organization, Phil Hosbach, Dr. Leonard Friedland
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated only 44 percent of adults get flu vaccinations while 59 percent of children are vaccinated.
Though it has been proven that only 50 to 60 percent of flu vaccines prevent serious infections and complications, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden announced, "flu is unpredictable, but you can predict that the single-best thing you can do to protect yourself is to get a flu vaccine."
Each year over 200,000 Americans are hospitalized with complications and thousands die. The CDC projects 171 to 179 million flu vaccine doses will be required this year, which is up from 147.8 million that were distributed last year. IMS Health reported a $1.61 billion revenue for last years' vaccine distribution with CSL estimates at $4 billion for this year.
The top three makers of the flu vaccine are US-based Sanofi Pasteur, the Australian company CSL and GlaxoSmithKline. Each year, the flue vaccine is based on the most-circulated strains, which complicates the process and limits the time each company has to create an effective vaccine.
"Every year, the world has to reassess if those strains in the vaccine are the right strains or not and adapt the vaccine. You cannot start manufacturing until you know for sure," Moncef Slaoui, chairman of vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline said.
Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said, "Flu is fickle. Last season was unusual because not only did we have one strain of influenza that caused almost all of the reported flu cases, but it was different - it had mutated - so it was different than the strain that was represented in the vaccine."
To create the flu vaccine, the World Health Organization must determine which strains of the flu should be included, based on what is currently making its way around the world.
Once the strains are decided, public health agencies provide seed viruses to manufacturers, who decide whether to make a trivalent vaccine, which includes three strains, or a quadrivalent, which is four.
As Slaoui explained, chicken eggs are the best way to manufacture flu vaccines regardless of the number of strains present. Manufacturers take fertilized eggs, check them for infections, double-check that they do indeed contain embryos, power-wash them, then inject them with the virus and leave them to incubate at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) for four to five days while the virus multiplies.
The virus is then extracted and killed then shipped to facilities to be placed in syringes then distributed around the world.
For those with egg allergies, there is a separate manufacturing process; and for people who have trouble with needles, a nasal spray is available.
Though there is no universal vaccine for the flu, the vaccine does help stop certain strains and brings scientists one step closer each year. Several people have expressed concerns with contracting the flu by accepting vaccines; however, the CDC says it's impossible to contract the flu from vaccines since the virus must first be killed or inactivated, and in the spray the virus has been extremely weakened.
Dr. Leonard Friedland, director of scientific affairs and public health for GSK Vaccines, said, "That's a common misconception and it's an absolute myth. It's impossible to get flu from the flu shot, absolutely impossible." --- The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics.
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In September, researchers announced that this year's vaccine is doing well and they emphasized the best way to avoid spreading the flu is to wash hands, cover coughs and sneezes and to get vaccinated.
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