CONNOR HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
It’s that time of year again; everyone’s coming down with colds and the flu. And while one common way to keep illness at bay is getting a flu shot, there has been some controversy lately over the effectiveness of the vaccination.
The problem, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is that a new mutation in the dormant flu vaccine has been discovered.The flu already kills anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 Americans a year.
According to the CDC, this mutation has caused the vaccines to be only 30 percent effective. The mutation to blame is called H3N2, and, according to the CDC, previous seasons in which this mutation of the flu existed have had very serious illnesses. Sixty children have already died this year from the flu.
“Every year it’s a gamble as to whether or not the flu shots [are] going to cover. What happens is they do all the testing and everything. And then, this year, a strain of the flu came out after the testing was done. So yes, the flu shot only covers about 23 percent of the viruses that are out there now, and it’s not the main one that is causing everyone to have the flu,” explained LoGrasso nurse practitioner Debbie Dibble.
Dibble added that this sort of thing happens about every 10 to 12 years.
“You do testing and you do testing and there’s a point where you have to put a shot out and hope there’s not a virus that comes out there that’s not going to be covered by it,” said Dibble.
According to Yahoo News, the main reason the flu vaccine has become so inefficient is that the flu viruses constantly mutate. The government picked the recipe for the vaccine last February, and tons of vaccine manufacturers then began to make millions of the vaccine to distribute.
According to Yahoo News, because of the mutation, this year’s version of the flu vaccine is only about 23 percent effective compared to the usual 50 or 60 percent of previous years.
By March, the CDC had noticed the beginning of the mutation. This mutation began to rapidly spread over the summer. By September, this mutation accounted for half of the strains in a global count. According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, it was too late to change it, as the shots were just arriving on pharmacy shelves.
Despite the inefficiency of the vaccine, the health center has not seen a decrease in the amount of people getting flu shots. Dibble mentioned how “although the actual flu vaccine only covers about 23 percent, it still covers a percentage of different kinds of flu. It’s still beneficial to get the flu shot.”
Some people refuse to get the flu shot because they believe it will actually give them the flu, instead of protect them from it.
“People are against getting flu shots because they are afraid they’re going to get the flu. That is a total myth — a fallacy; you can’t get the flu from the flu shot,” said Dibble. “The flu shot is a dead virus, so you can’t get the flu from it.”
Dibble further explained that one cannot get a strain of the flu that was in the vaccine; however, it is possible to get a variation of the flu that was not in the vaccine.
The inefficiency of this year’s flu vaccine has caused many people, especially politicians, to seriously question the federal health agencies.
US Rep. Tim Murphy called together a hearing of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to get some answers from the health officials. The main problem, they told the committee, was just how fast the virus mutates.
Anthony M. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, testified that the speed of the mutation creates “significant challenges for those who must forecast which influenza virus strains are the most suitable targets for seasonal vaccine development.”
“They need a system in place so that when something emerges as a problem — and you can always bet there will be a mutation — they can address it,” commented Murphy after the hearing.
It wasn’t just the committee members yelling at the health officials the whole time; both of them agreed that it was still necessary to get the vaccines out there.
“ Even a vaccine with 23 percent effectiveness will protect millions from getting sick,” commented US Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado.
The Federal Health officials have said they’re going to fix this as soon as possible.
The flu season is upon us and LoGrasso advises students to practice good hygiene to stop the spread of this disease. Dibble says the number one way to prevent a virus is “hand washing.”