ISTOCK, SCYTHER5This year’s influenza vaccine has been 36 percent effective against the flu, according to a report released Thursday (February 15) by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When considering only protection against H3N2—the most common, and most virulent, strain of influenza—that effectiveness dropped to 25 percent.
The 2017-2018 flu season has been particularly brutal so far. Already 63 children have died—three-quarters of whom were not vaccinated, according to CDC officials (via CNN). And more than two-thirds of flu cases have been caused by the H3N2 strain, which is “often linked to more severe illness,” CDC Director Anne Schuchat tells CNN.
Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), noted in a statement released on Thursday that, “it has been an especially challenging season, with high rates of hospitalization for both influenza and its complications. . . . Many schools have closed in an attempt to control the spread of the illness and doctors’ offices are packed with patients seeking diagnosis and antiviral treatment.”
This season’s vaccine was ...
