Click to Translate to English Click to Translate to French  Click to Translate to Spanish  Click to Translate to German  Click to Translate to Italian  Click to Translate to Japanese  Click to Translate to Chinese Simplified  Click to Translate to Korean  Click to Translate to Arabic  Click to Translate to Russian  Click to Translate to Portuguese  Click to Translate to Myanmar (Burmese)

PANDEMIC ALERT LEVEL
123456
Forum Home Forum Home > Main Forums > Latest News
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Cell Culture Flu Vaccine Is Superior.
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Cell Culture Flu Vaccine Is Superior.

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
John L. View Drop Down
Expert Level Adviser
Expert Level Adviser
Avatar

Joined: September 03 2017
Location: New York/USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1415
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote John L. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Cell Culture Flu Vaccine Is Superior.
    Posted: March 11 2018 at 3:30am
     This is the first official confirmation of my claims in earlier posts that new flu vaccines are superior with H3N2 to obsolete egg based ones.  But this is not the Holy Grail, I still did fairly well against the flu but was sick for weeks with the secondary infection that came after.  So if the egg base vaccine is 20% effective, flucelvax would be 25% re. the H3N2 component.  In a pandemic this would not save us.

https://www.statnews.com/2018/03/09/cell-culture-flu-vaccine-flucelvax/

The sole influenza vaccine made in cell culture in the United States may have worked about 20 percent better this flu season than the standard vaccines made in eggs, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Thursday.

Gottlieb revealed that figure in a hearing of the congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations, called to explore this year’s severe flu season and why flu vaccines did not appear to protect especially well.

Gottlieb has said for several weeks that the FDA had data that suggested the cell-culture vaccine performed somewhat better, but this was the first time he publicly quantified the scale of the benefit.

“The data aren’t final yet, but I’m comfortable saying that I think it’s going to be about 20 percent improved efficacy for the cell-based vaccine relative to the egg-based vaccines,” Gottlieb told STAT in an interview after the hearing.

The cell-culture vaccine is sold under the brand name Flucelvax; it is made by Seqirus.

Experts have recognized for several years now that growing the viruses used in influenza vaccines in hen’s eggs can cause problems. The viruses have to adapt to grow in eggs; sometimes the mutations they acquire occur at critical locations on the virus. This seems to happen most often with H3N2 viruses, which cause the worst seasonal flu outbreaks.

The effect of those mutations? The H3N2 component of the vaccine trains the recipient’s immune system to be on the lookout for the wrong invaders. Instead of being on guard against a man in a trench coat, the resulting antibodies are looking for a man in a windbreaker.

It’s thought that viruses grown in cell culture don’t acquire as many mutations, so influenza researchers have been eager to see if this vaccine is more effective.

Researchers and public health authorities are also looking for evidence that may come from the military, which used a substantial amount of cell-culture vaccine this flu season. Analysts with the Department of Defense health services are looking to see if there is a discernible difference in infection rates among servicepeople and their dependents who got the cell-culture vaccine.

< id="mc4wp--1" ="mc4wp- mc4wp--43184 mc4wp-ajax stat-" method="post" -id="43184" -name="Daily Recap">
Newsletters

Sign up for our Daily Recap newsletter

< name="EMAIL" placeholder="Enter your email" required="" ="email">
< id="mc4wp--1" ="mc4wp- mc4wp--43184 mc4wp-ajax stat-" method="post" -id="43184" -name="Daily Recap">

At the FDA, analysts have been looking at medical records of 16 million people 65 and older covered by Medicare, comparing rates of people who received flu drug prescriptions or who were hospitalized for influenza based on which type of flu shot they received.

Gottlieb said in addition to comparing the egg- and cell-culture-based vaccines, the FDA is looking at whether people who got high-dose vaccines or vaccines with a performance booster known as an adjuvant — both of which types of vaccines are licensed only for seniors —were also afforded more protection.

The study design used by the FDA cannot break down protection by virus type. But because so much of this year’s flu activity has been caused by H3N2, it suggests the benefit mainly relates to that component of the vaccine.

The study design is not identical to the one the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses every year to calculate how well the flu vaccine works. So comparing the CDC vaccine effectiveness estimates and the FDA findings is not entirely an apples-to-apples exercise.

Still, the FDA calculations suggest people who got a cell-culture vaccine this year may have gotten a significant amount of additional benefit, said Dr. Edward Belongia, of Wisconsin’s Marshfield Clinic. Belongia runs one of the trial sites in the CDC’s flu vaccine effectiveness network.

“If there really is a 20 percent relative effectiveness benefit for cell-culture vaccine versus egg-based, that’s definitely meaningful,” Belongia said. “We’re looking for all the incremental improvements we can get.”

Belongia explained what that would look like as follows:

If egg-based flu vaccines were 17 percent effective, that would mean of 100 vaccinated people who were all exposed to influenza, 17 would have been protected and 83 would have caught the flu.

But if the cell-culture vaccine were 20 percent better than the flu shots made in eggs, an additional 17 people — 20 percent of the 83 — would have been protected. So 34 out of 100 vaccinated people would have dodged flu’s bullet.

Interim vaccine effectiveness estimates released last month by the CDC suggested that flu vaccines had protected about 36 percent of people vaccinated.

Infectious diseases expert Michael Osterholm called the 20 percent estimate “a measurable gain,” but insisted better flu vaccines are needed to combat influenza.

“We’ve got to do what we can with what we have. But we can’t be lulled into a false sense of security that what we have is what we need,” said Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy and lead author of a 2012 report on influenza vaccine shortcomings and solutions.

Gottlieb noted that it is too soon to say vaccines made in cell culture are the way to go; some years, he told the congressional committee, vaccines made in eggs are more effective.

More study is needed — potentially including a randomized controlled trial comparing the two vaccine types, Gottlieb said. If it appears that the vaccines made in cell culture consistently perform better against H3N2 viruses, that would give the FDA options.

“Maybe we make a recommendation that the H3N2 component has to be produced in a cell-based process and the others can be produced in eggs. There are things that you can do, if you’re able to answer that question, ” he said.

“Right now it’s speculation, it’s hypothesis. I don’t have the answer.”

About the Author

Senior Writer, Infectious Disease
Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development.

Tags

John L.
Back to Top
Technophobe View Drop Down
Assistant Admin
Assistant Admin
Avatar

Joined: January 16 2014
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 88450
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2018 at 4:23am
You are spot on there.

Surprisingly, even an inefficient vaccine can halt an epidemic if the correct measures are followed.  But it needs to be compulsory and used in conjunction with quarrantine to do so.  So that is not usually an option unless the disease is a really big killer.  Measles is a great illustrator of this fact.  Measles has an R0 of between 12 and 18* and the vaccine is about 80% effective.  There are programmes in place to curb outbreaks**, but they are usually scuppered by anti-vaxers and consequently there are a few fatalities every year.

Although eppidemiology is an interest of mine, I am glad I do not have the political position tp dictate policy.  The choice becomes: freedom V disease control.  I am glad that is a decision I do not have to make.


*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28757186
**https://watermark.silverchair.com/189-Supplement_1-S27.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAb8wggG7BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggGsMIIBqAIBADCCAaEGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMy-DAYRHgxX5rlah6AgEQgIIBci2W_WGUEy3Ge_wGslCBhSjYSdOmOS01I_Tr85O4F-watmSmD7xD5KJccFhC9ulZFlUp0Jlo-cO7NJWp9qRFxOIBoYr7V8blbhxLh_qMnkeCIZHumCRNNnD3e0Ea_B9xzS0-Ne5q0_qHwJFULnE5U2Z0CuZXYaBxADKGjtUOmHkX-ra9o7ZNl9ZXg3H7YNTwyuAAi0m5FFPqjA-arrzOuS97dAuW9zB9aN2eI8v51890mM401KR1F3ADUf1MFowdljfbIVOPAQG3rAbCwBJ-slamz1A4-gEqHzSd1wWf7wqb8eQ1Te7TkX42gZuSGLPDKHTUpWPURF6TOOmlCuZGfSSg7A1HoefLkuq_NZKhUxZN0vfHEmFHA17-hxS67EmhljcypSmk3PsQY7l-uWpUQrWbuzN_wi6c_bcy6Fp5jQsrzzCgUxUxjf5KKFZffhZ_-SUk49VfgNHzzDygV0FiwuPNm27CYooIRZZH9OYtpE0bR5Q
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
Back to Top
EdwinSm, View Drop Down
Moderator
Moderator


Joined: April 03 2013
Status: Offline
Points: 24065
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2018 at 4:29am
BAD MATHS WARNING

There is a difference between a 20% increase in effectiveness and a 20%-point increase in effectiveness.  Dr Belongia seems to be into Bad Maths to overstate the case. AngryAngryAngry.  The alternative explanation is the the author of the piece is using mathmatical terms incorrectly.

Using the example below. If the vaccine was 17% effective then out of a 100, 17 would be protected.  A 20% increase in effectiveness would mean about 20 persons would be protected [ie 17 x 120%]

Quote   

“If there really is a 20 percent relative effectiveness benefit for cell-culture vaccine versus egg-based, that’s definitely meaningful,” Belongia said. “We’re looking for all the incremental improvements we can get.”

Belongia explained what that would look like as follows:

If egg-based flu vaccines were 17 percent effective, that would mean of 100 vaccinated people who were all exposed to influenza, 17 would have been protected and 83 would have caught the flu.

But if the cell-culture vaccine were 20 percent better than the flu shots made in eggs, an additional 17 people — 20 percent of the 83 — would have been protected. So 34 out of 100 vaccinated people would have dodged flu’s bullet.

Back to Top
Technophobe View Drop Down
Assistant Admin
Assistant Admin
Avatar

Joined: January 16 2014
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 88450
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2018 at 5:20am
Oh boy, isn't that true!

Bad maths and flawed science are the mainstay of our 'intelligensia'.
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
Back to Top
carbon20 View Drop Down
Moderator
Moderator
Avatar

Joined: April 08 2006
Location: West Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 65816
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2018 at 2:11pm
i would say when dealing with anyone who may or may not have a vested interest in whatever they recomend,

"is take it all with a pinch of salt",

because whatever they say ,

one day something will come out of left field and no egg based or cell culture based will stop it ,

just keep watching and waiting and prepin ,

stay aware !!!!!!

coz thats all that will save you .........

from the 12 monkey's army.............

some nutter going from airport to airport on a round the world trip ........

with a pocket full of airborne Ebloa+H1200 N6000++++++++

wake up ,and stay alert



Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down