After COVID killed off a flu strain, annual flu shots are in for a redesign
After COVID killed off a flu strain, annual flu shots are in for a redesign
It's TBD how and when a reformulation will happen, but it's now in the works.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/22390
Apparently, a strain of influenza, B/Yamagata, went extinct, perhaps because of COVID. Go figure.
Crazy what happens when people wash their hands and stay inside when sick
Imagine if they also masked... and kept doing it even after COVID is "gone" (aka: killing fewer people).
Earlier this week, I had to catch a bus and go to a clinic to get my blood work done. Plenty of coughing and sneezing people in both places, and other than the office workers, I was the only one wearing a mask.
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Vaccine advisors for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously (12 to 0) Thursday to remove, "as soon as possible," a component of annual flu shots that targets a strain of the virus that appears to have gone extinct amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The missing strain is the influenza type B Yamagata lineage (aka B/Yamagata), one of only four flu viruses targeted by annual vaccines.
There have been no confirmed detections of B/Yamagata worldwide since March 2020, when the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, erupted onto the global scene, dramatically disrupting the lives of people and other viruses everywhere.
While other strains and lineages of influenza have since rebounded and are moving back to their normal seasonal cycles, B/Yamagata is still unaccounted for.
Thus, keeping B/Yamagata in vaccines poses a risk of reintroducing the virus to people if a mishap occurs during production.
Makers of those quadrivalent vaccines still technically have licenses for trivalent formulas, an FDA official said in the meeting today.
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