Friday, December 5, 2014

Why Does The Flu Vaccine Suck This Year?

Why Does The Flu Vaccine Suck This Year?


Did you get your flu shot? I didn't really want to (I hate needles) but as an infectious disease physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, it would be exceedingly poor form if I opted out. My job requires it, and I recommend the vaccine to just about every patient, every day. The shot doesn't actually hurt, and if you look at the terrifying data—influenza kills between 3,000 and 50,000 Americans every year—it seems insane not to get immunized. Annual vaccination reduces your chance of dying from the virus by more than 40 percent! But on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control announced that this year's vaccine kinda sucks. To be specific, it's less than 50 percent effective against the predominant strain of circulating virus. So what went wrong?


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