Why is the flu shot ineffective this year
ASK UNMC! What is the ineffectiveness of this year's flu vaccine and what should I know?
[Music]
so even though we're into the flu season
it's not too late to get the vaccine it
takes about two weeks from the time you
get the shot to when you have immunity
to the influenza and even though we're
not quite sure what the match is even if
it's not a good match there's some
information to suggest that you'll have
what we call an attenuated case or a
more mild case of flu even if the match
is not perfect we are worried about this
year's flu season we tend to look at the
season on Australia to help to predict
what we're going to see during our
winter months so again the winter and
the summer are reversed in the northern
and southern hemispheres so the flu
season in Australia last season was
particularly severe and was caused by a
strain that we call h3n2 so we're
worried that we may see a severe season
here in the United States the h3n2 type
of flu tends to be more severe anyway
and there's some indications that the
vaccine may not be as effective against
that strain right now it's too early in
the season to really say whether the
vaccine strain matches with the
circulating community strain the initial
information seems like it's a pretty
favorable match but it's still pretty
early to say
you
