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Yes the flu vaccine is updated every year (and occasionally they put the right strain into it), the technology used was developed in the 1940s. It is very crude
by danieltillett 8y ago
Yes the flu vaccine is updated every year (and occasionally they put the right strain into it), the technology used was developed in the 1940s. It is very crude, but thanks to the FDA no advance is practicable.
You might think this doesn’t matter, but we now know how to make a universal flu vaccine that doesn’t need to be updated each year. Apart from not needing to be jabbed every year, if we get another 1918 epidemic then we will find out how much we will regret not having a new vaccine.
- dv_dt 8y agoThe third method in that CDC link says it was approved in 2013. But I gather that's a new productions/replication method as opposed to a new method of selecting strains? But again, what is the difference between selecting flu strains to combat a given flu season, and selecting phages to combat a given resistant bacteria. I'm excited for a universal flu vaccine too, and hope that somehow that vaccine gets funded and succeeds.
- danieltillett 8y agoThe difference is the flu virus keeps mutating while with phages you have a large collection and choose the ones that work on the infection the patient has. The big problem with the flu vaccine is the lead times are so long (6 months) that the vaccine producers need to guess what strains will be circulating 6 months ahead. Since they lack a crystal ball they often get it wrong. The only real advance with the cellular vaccines is for people allergic to egg. I am not that hopeful that a universal flu vaccine will get funded.