Global health experts are increasingly worried about a new strain of the flu that popped up in June — four months after the makeup of this year’s flu shots had already been decided. The reason you haven't heard about it is, even before the shut down, is that the CDC was hollowed out by the Trump massive layoffs that delay flu data collection and analysis. So much winning! Via NBC News:
The new strain, a version of H3N2, is causing outbreaks in Canada and the U.K., where health officials are warning about the early wave that’s sending people to the hospital.
“Since it emerged, it’s rapidly spreading and predominating in some countries so far in the Northern Hemisphere,” Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the World Health Organization’s Global Respiratory Threats Unit, said Wednesday during a media briefing.
The version of H3N2 that’s circulated worldwide this year “acquired 7 new mutations over the summer,” Antonia Ho, a consultant in infectious diseases at Scotland’s University of Glasgow, said in a media statement. That “means the virus is quite different to the H3N2 strain included in this year’s vaccine,” she said.
[...] The annual flu shot doesn’t prevent people from getting infected with the flu. It’s mainly used to lessen the severity of the illness. Last year, the vaccine was up to 55% effective in keeping adults with the flu out of the hospital.
On Tuesday, health authorities in the U.K. published preliminary evidence that this year’s vaccine is up to 40% effective in preventing hospitalization among adults.
Schaffner encouraged people to get the shot anyway.
“All of the data over previous decades shows that even if there is not a close match, use of the vaccine continues to prevent hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and continues to help keep people out of the cemetery,” he said.
