Comment by UncleOxidant
1 day ago
Will there even be a flu shot next year with rfk jr. in charge of HHS? NIH formulates what goes into to the next year's flu vaccine in the spring and HHS is over the NIH.
1 day ago
Will there even be a flu shot next year with rfk jr. in charge of HHS? NIH formulates what goes into to the next year's flu vaccine in the spring and HHS is over the NIH.
The rest of the World won't have it skipped and I expect that US entities will not be banned outright from importing vaccines, though maybe with cost penalties added. So even in a bad case scenario you shouldn't be cut off completely, right?
It's important to realize that H5N1 "bird" influenza is very different from anything that typically goes into the annual vaccines. Typical seasonal influenzas can have case fatality ratios up to about 1% for bad years if memory serves. Strains close to what's discussed in the article have had CFR into many tens of percent in spillover events. Metaphorically speaking, this one has potential to turn into a blazing inferno that makes the coronavirus spillover in 2019 look like an ambitious fire drill.