2019-2029 Flu Season United States - The Real News

First item to note about the current Flu - I have it - and it is pretty bad. Many of the people, my neighbors and friends, have it and their children. There will be a real issue this year because the vaccine will not cover hundreds of sub-strains emerging and there is no reporting of deaths of those over 65 minimal news from CDC as it spreads.

Influenza A      143 (24.6%)      738 (37.3%)
Influenza B      439 (75.4%)      1,240 (62.7%)

Widespread – two states (Louisiana and Maryland)
Regional – one state (Alabama)
Local – Puerto Rico and 15 states (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia).

Influenza B      63 (53.8%)      382 (43.8%)
            Yamagata lineage      4 (9.5%)      11 (3.7%)
        Victoria lineage      38 (90.5%)      287 (96.3%)

The 2019/20 influenza (flu) vaccines protect against the following viruses:

    an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
    an A/Kansas/14/2017 (H3N2)-like virus
    a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus
    a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (in the quadrivalent vaccines only)

It doesn't appear the predominant strain which is infecting 96.3% of the people is covered by the current vaccine.

Date last updated:
Monday, Oct 07, 2019

Medclinician

Thank you President Donald Trump. Maybe CDC was sleeping, but maybe we will get this in time.

President Trump signs EO for better vaccine for Flu

President Donald Trump yesterday issued an executive order directing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to overhaul seasonal flu vaccine production and urge more Americans to be vaccinated.

The executive order, titled "Modernizing Influenza Vaccines in the United States to Promote National Security and Public Health," promotes new vaccine manufacturing technologies to support more robust vaccines and advances the development of vaccines that provide longer lasting coverage against a broad range of flu viruses.
Weaknesses in current production methods

In the executive order, President Trump emphasized that each year, flu vaccines prevent millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths. It also acknowledged that a deadly flu pandemic could inflict trillions of dollars of damage on the economy.

"Unfortunately, many of the vaccines we use today are produced overseas, using time-consuming, egg-based technology, which limits their effectiveness and makes production too slow to effectively combat a potential deadly influenza pandemic," the White House said in a statement.

In a related fact sheet, Trump said, "We want a safe and healthy future for every American family."

Improving flu vaccines and developing universal formulations was part of proposed Senate bill last year that would have invested $1 billion in research over the next 5 years.
Speeding up production, advancing better vaccines

The goals of overhauling flu vaccine production will reduce reliance on time-consuming egg-based vaccine production. Also, the White House said improved production speed could help experts better match vaccines to the most current circulating strains.

For example, earlier this year, World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine advisors delayed their recommendation for the H3N2 vaccine strain by a month, due to rising numbers of genetically and antigenically diverse viruses. In doing so, it warned that the move could delay flu vaccine production by 2 to 4 weeks.

A more closely matched vaccine is an important part of making the vaccines more effective. Flu vaccines are known to provide moderate protection, at about 54%, though effectiveness varies by year, with performance especially uneven against H3N2 viruses.

Also, the Trump Administration said it will advance the development of new more effective vaccines.

In 2012, a group led by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News, led a group that published an in-depth analysis of problems with current flu vaccines and steps needed to develop a game-changing flu vaccine with the potential to blunt the impact of a future pandemic.

The White House said President Trump is establishing a task force to identify priorities and monitor progress.
HHS to take lead

In a separate statement yesterday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that under the order, HHS will lead the coordination of efforts to modernize flu vaccine production.

"President Trump’s executive order to modernize influenza vaccine manufacturing reflects his commitment both to America’s national security and to America's health," he said.

Tom Inglesby, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, on Twitter today said the executive order was good and strong, requiring a new plan for faster manufacturing, improving public understanding about flu and promoting better coverage, government study of vaccine effectiveness and costs, and a lot more.

Medclinician

Techno, you dump on my President Trump, I hate to tell you 95% of the people out of "Our little Prepper World" do not know about vaccines and how long it takes to develop. He is trying to get people moving on saving lives by getting people to think outside the box and maybe make a change for the good. Please use common polite wording, I never Called Obama a Stupid (N word) so do not use call my President names.

FluMom wrote: Techno, you dump on my President Trump, I hate to tell you 95% of the people out of "Our little Prepper World" do not know about vaccines and how long it takes to develop. He is trying to get people moving on saving lives by getting people to think outside the box and maybe make a change for the good. Please use common polite wording, I never Called Obama a Stupid (N word) so do not use call my President names.

The focus is getting more than a billion dollars to do a lot over five years. It won't happen tomorrow. The vaccine people keep missing the target and I will tell (cough) this is a bad one. We have at least most of the people on the block having it and the little dogs hardly see the daylight, much less a walk around to pee.

Another key point is that a lot of sub strains develop and the bottom line is babies and old people get hit hard. Our local health people rarely admit anyone for flu or report it.

I am on week four of this, and my neighbor on week 3.

I realize the T world is a call to arms for many - especially in the last few days when another coup was thwarted. But an executive order to get on the vaccine thing is going to help.

Medclinician

I’m surprised. We’re seeing little to no flu activity down here in San Diego. I’m not aware of anyone with symptoms consistent with it. I’ve had a few coworkers come down with the sniffles for a few days (but no fever that I’m aware of) and nothing that’s warranted any sick calls.

Ps, Our closest friend and neighbour has just had a week off work with flu. We did not. We just had a mild case of the sniffles. (The sniffles were me with nothing for Hubby.) We were both vaccinated and both only had the trivalent mix, although Hubby had the adjuvant in his.

That looks like a pretty good match to me for this year.