How effective is the flu vaccine for 2019-2020?

[pbmus]

Last edited Wed Apr 22, 2020, 07:31 PM - Edit history (1)

21 CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the current influenza vaccine has been 45% effective overall against 2019-2020 seasonal influenza A and B viruses. Specifically, the flu vaccine has been 50% effective against influenza B/Victoria viruses and 37% effective against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09.Feb 26, 2020.

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So if and when a vaccine for coronavirus is developed, how effective will it be??? Any vaccine will not be a panacea.

I am still putting my hope and prayers into a cocktail of therapeutic drugs that will hold the coronavirus at bay...

[hlthe2b]

1. Even years when there is a signficant strain mismatch in the flu vaccine with less overall efficacy,

they are highly effective in reducing serious outcomes/death. That is the one thing anti-flu vaxxers fail to realize. A vaccine that saves your life is not "worthless" even if it does not totally prevent infection. That may well be the case with COVID-targeted vaccines.

[BGBD]

2. not apples to apples.

The flu vaccine each year is a guess. Flu evolves all the time, and the vaccine we have targets areas that tend to change pretty often. We have to guess which strain is going to hit that season and make a vaccine to target it. Work continues on a vaccine that targets less volatile parts of flu viruses to serves as a "universal" vaccine.

Coronaviruses are more stable and the vaccines in development are focusing on a protien that is a very stable part of the virus. A successful vaccine is going to outperform current flu vaccines. Not to mention even when flu vaccines dont stop you from getting the flu they still lessen the severity, which could be likely here too.

[pbmus]

4. Thanks for the information...

How do coronavirus mutations over 30 times figure into your answer..?

[Mike 03]

3. With the seasonal flu, the vaccine makers have to predict which types and strains are going to hit

long enough before they actually arrive in order to mass produce enough vaccine. They don't guess blindly, they probably observe which flu strains appear during Australia's and Europe's flu seasons.

In the case of COVID-19, they know fairly specifically which virus they are preparing for, more less. It's true there's a concern about multiple strains, but I've heard other experts say one good thing about coronaviruses is their stability, because when they replicate they make fewer errors than other types of viruses.

An example might be that there is one measles vaccine, from what I know. There doesn't have to be a different measles vaccine every year.

I'm not a virologist, but this is what I've read and heard.

[Midnight Writer]

5. Immunity through flu vaccines also increases if you get the shot every year.

[Marrah_Goodman]

6. We won't know until the season starts

[efhmc]

7. How about both? One for prevention and the other if prevention does not work.