This year’s flu vax is only 10% effective, according to the CDC, so basically useless. Every year is different. At best flu vax is about 70% effective, that’s considered a successful one.
Pa is getting hit hard with the flu now....supposedly peaking..... I went grocery shopping the other night and for the first time actually wiped down ‘every’ ledge on the cart including the hand bar....I saturated it! Washed my hands well before leaving the store too....and once home.
This stuff is really nasty this year!
The 10% vaccine effectiveness (VE) figure reported in the news is an Australian interim estimate of the vaccine’s benefit against one flu virus (the H3N2 virus) that circulated in Australia during its most recent flu season. In the United States last season, overall vaccine effectiveness against all circulating flu viruses was 39%, and VE was only a bit lower (32%) against H3N2 viruses. Vaccine effectiveness against other flu viruses (i.e., H1N1 or B viruses) was higher. The United States has a very robust network that estimates vaccine effectiveness each season. This season’s flu vaccine includes the same H3N2 vaccine component as last season, and most circulating H3N2 viruses that have been tested in the United States this season are still similar to the H3N2 vaccine virus. Based on this data...
OTOH, as I mentioned in an earlier post, it stands to reason that if a resistant or "missed" (by the vaccine) strain gets going, vaccine efficiency will suffer. But it's very hard to know that in, say, October.