CDC finds flu shots 42% effective this season, better than some recent years

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: February 29, 2024 / 2:41 PM EST


This season's influenza vaccines have been 42% effective so far, according to a new interim estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amounting to protection against the virus that appears as good or better than seasons going back to 2016.

First previewed Wednesday at a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, details of the latest vaccine effectiveness, referred to as VE, estimates were published Thursday in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"We're right in the range that we typically see when the vaccine is a good match with the viruses that are circulating. Good VE, and it's working consistent with past years," said Sascha Ellington, head of the CDC's influenza prevention and control team.

The exact strains selected to be targeted by flu vaccines are tweaked each year based on what health authorities project will be the best match to the circulating viruses each season. In recent years, vaccines have been designed to target four different subtypes of flu: two from the influenza A group of viruses and two from influenza B.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flu-shot-effectiveness-2023-2024-season/

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Link to CDC MMWR Flu Vaccine update - Interim Estimates of 2023–24 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States

[jimfields33]

1. Sheesh. I thought they'd be in the 90's.

That’s less than half. I get one every year but that’s dismal.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. It's never been that high

About the highest I've seen is maybe 60% effective.

Because of the long lag time between determining what they think will be circulating and actually doing the manufacturing process (using eggs), means that it's often a miss by the time the vaccines are ready before the fall.

This is why there is a lot of work being done to try to get an effective mRNA flu vaccine because the manufacturing of that can happen much quicker and thus they can "guestimate" the variant later in the year before the fall (meaning a better chance the "guess" is spot on).

[Chakaconcarne]

3. 42% is a good year when they match

which isn't often at all...maybe 1 out of every 5-7 years they match.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Effectiveness hasn't topped 50% since 2013, IIRC

One of the reasons I don't get one.

[Kennah]

9. Average is 43.6%

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/effectiveness-studies.htm

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. 42% effective.

I never get a flu shot. And, oddly enough, I never get the flu. Hmmm.

I'm 75 years old. Got flu many times in my earlier life, including the 1957 epidemic, also known as the Asian Flu. That was a type A flu, and since I recovered from it I'm permanently immune from that kind of flu, meaning a type A. Looking back at the 1918 epidemic (which is sort of a watermark for flu epidemics) the reason so many of those back then over age 60 survived was because some 50 years earlier there was an earlier epidemic, meaning a type A influenza epidemic, and those who survived that one were now permanently immune.

I'm in that category. I've had the worst possible flu. I got over it. I can't get it again.

[Blues Heron]

6. I would not count on being permanently immune based on a flu you got in 1957

Could be you are just lucky. A Flu shot is probably a good idea at your age.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. An important reason in the 1918 flu epidemic almost no one

much older than 50 got it, is that some 50 years earlier there was a similar type A influenza epidemic. Those alive then either got it and died, or got it and recovered, or perhaps were somehow immune already. In any case, getting a type A flu and recovering probably does impart permanent immunity.

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry is an amazing read. One small caveat: When he wrote the book in the early 2000s (it was published in 2004) he subscribed to the idea that the "Spanish" flu originated in Kansas. He has since recanted and says no, it didn't actually start there. In any case, his telling the story of that terrible epidemic is well worth reading.

I last got flu in, I dunno, 1973? 74? Around then, anyway. Let's see, how long ago was that? Oh, yeah, nearly 50 years ago. Honestly, I feel safe.

Meanwhile, the flu shots are less than 50% effective, and you need to get another one every single year. I'm happy with my immunity.

[RussBLib]

5. time for our booster

...our last one was September. March makes 6 months. My wife and I still have not have Covid, and we don't personally know anyone else who has not had Covid.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I've had the original and two or three boosters -- can't recall

the exact number and don't feel like tracking down the little sheet of paper that would tell me. I likewise have not had Covid, and I know plenty of people who were vaccinated and boosted and still got it. Although I certainly appreciate that the vaccines greatly reduce the severity.

I'm inclined to think that the essential reason I haven't gotten it is that I live alone, don't go out much, am rarely in any kind of place that has very many people. Yes, I have a VERY robust immune system which also helps a lot. But those other things probably matter.

[Blues Heron]

7. THe effectiveness rating means the NUMBER of cases in an exposed population is 47 percent less than an unvaxed group

of similar size. BUT the vax can also make your case MILDER if you do get it. Dont think its useless because of the effectiveness rating being so seemingly low. get vaxxed y`all!

[IbogaProject]

12. It is the only one I've avoided

The marketing for it back in 1985 sounded weak. I'm holding out for the upcoming universal flu vaccine or will reconsider once I'm moving into my 60s. I hope they come out with a subunit protein one like the Novavax covid one, that one had zero after effects and I feel it covered me well as I never caught it including when my wife was sick w COVID and I stayed with her with no isolation and zero symptoms.