Would children be the only ones to get this Avian flu vaccine? What about the elderly?
The rules have changed for H5N1. Instead of emphasizing infants, the elderly, and the sick, vaccination emphasis will be for school age children, as they are the most effective human vectors; and everyone in outbreak areas, to limit the spread.
This is the way things used to be done for any number of other epidemic diseases, and is projected to have a better outcome.
Ironically, the group most susceptible to H5N1 are from older teens to people in their early 40s. This is because their strong immune system will overreact to the alien virus, called the “cytokine storm”, which will shred their lungs.
A terrible downside is that once we get a sample of the “actual” pandemic strain, in six months, the most vaccine we will be able to produce is 30 million vaccinations, or enough for only 1 out of every 10 Americans.
To make matters worse, many people will die of oxygen deprivation, solely because America has a perpetual shortage of oxygen ventilators, just slightly more than we need for a typical flu season.