“We here at public health will not be receiving or administering the nasal mist vaccine this year”, said Michelle Corson, public relations officer for Kern County Public Health Services.
Advertisement
The product, AstraZeneca’s FluMist, was once regarded as the best vaccine for protecting children against flu.
“The problem could be something specific related to the pandemic H1N1 virus”, said Dr. John Treanor, who tests flu vaccines at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The CDC says people who get vaccinated may still get influenza, but they are much less likely to get a serious infection that puts them into the hospital or kills them. Don’t use this as an excuse not to get a shot altogether this winter.
Vaccine experts say they are not sure.
“How well the flu vaccine works (or its ability to prevent flu illness) can range widely from season to season and can be affected by a number of factors, including characteristics of the person being vaccinated, the similarity between vaccine viruses and circulating viruses, and even which vaccine is used”, the CDC said.
The reason behind this is data from 2013 through 2016 showing that the nasally administered FluMist has only been 3 percent effective – essentially offering no protection at all – whereas the injectable vaccine was 63 percent effective in preventing the flu. About a third of all children vaccinated for flu have been given the nasal spray.
The traditional flu shot is effective, however, and recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older, the panel concluded.
For now, the decision on what to do next with FluMist is in the air.
Vaccine manufacturers had projected that as many as 171 million to 176 million doses of flu vaccine, in all forms, would be available for the United States during the 2016-2017 season.
During the winter that just ended, flu shots were almost 50 percent effective against the flu strain that made most people sick. Therefore, it’s important to get immunized annually, even if you or your child didn’t receive full protection in previous years. “It’s still a licenced vaccine”, she said, “and some may use it anyway”.
Because vaccines in general are not a big profit-maker for drug companies, there’s not a lot of incentive to pour big research dollars into making a better flu vaccine, so the work’s left to small biotech companies, academic research labs and the federal government. “This vaccine isn’t as effective as we need”, at least based on data from the past few flu seasons, Adalja said.
Bresee said some suspect that it is has to do with the decision a few years ago to incorporate four strains of flu in FluMist instead of the traditional three. In the overall population, the CDC says studies show vaccines can reduce the risk of flu by about 50 to 60 percent when the vaccines are well matched.
The nasal spray’s low effectiveness is somewhat surprising, experts say – in earlier studies, the spray performed just as well as, and sometimes better than, the flu shot.
Advertisement
There’s not a clear answer, said Henry Bernstein, a professor of pediatrics at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine in NY and an ex-officio member of the committee on infectious diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics. The committee’s recommendation may affect vaccine providers who have already placed vaccine orders.
