Scientists are warning that this winter's flu vaccine will be less effective against an emerging variant of H3N2 flu named subclade K.
  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    5 months ago

    For those that don’t know, even if the annual vaccination doesn’t target the dominant specific strain that year, it still provides more protection than no vaccine!

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
      27·
      5 months ago

      Ehhhh it depends. If the strain is really far off from what’s in that year’s vaccine, not really. The closer the relationship, the better the protection. Obviously I’m not saying anybody should skip vaccination but it isn’t that simple

      • minnow@lemmy.world
        93·
        5 months ago

        You misunderstood. They mean that the vaccine is still protecting from the strains that ARE in it, so it’s not reasonable to forego the vaccine just because of one strain that’s not in it.

  • redbrick@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    As I understand it…the northern and southern hemisphere depend on each other in determining which strain to include in the vaccine. So the north looks at what has happened in the south to determine what to include in the north for the next season right? So I wonder…why do this? Why not just include all 14 of the known strains and be done with it? Is there an incompatibility that we don’t know about? Asking for a friend…