Instead, it recommended that all children six months and older get the flu shot.
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It’s especially small when compared to the efficacy of the flu shot, which is about 63 percent.
Flu vaccinations are available now at local pharmacies and health departments, for example, but Stevenson said individuals should wait until closer to October to get vaccinated “so immunity will be at its peak when you’re most likely to be exposed to the disease”. “These antibodies provide protection against infection with the viruses that are in the vaccine”.
He says they give the quadravalent vaccine which protects against both the A and B strain of influenza.
“There’s always some concern when you take away an option from people that they won’t get the alternative”, she said.
Since the flu shot contains inactivated, killed flu viruses, it is not scientifically possible for the vaccine to cause the flu.
While most flu symptoms are not life-threatening – such as muscle aches, fever and fatigue – pneumonia, bronchitis, sinus and ear infections can develop in elderly patients if flu is left untreated.
“The studies that we did here when we looked at the efficacy of the live viral vaccine – they were good”, Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Hasbro, said.
The Iredell County Health Department will not offer the flu mist this year.
There is a high-dose flu shot specifically made for those 65 years and older.
The Huntsville Hospital Walk-In Clinic is providing flu shots now. “The flu will do that to you”.
Medical professionals are hoping the ineffectiveness of the FluMist nasal vaccine doesn’t deter people from getting vaccinated altogether this season.
Since then, the vaccine has been a popular choice for children as young as 2 years old, working a bit differently than the traditional shot in the arm.
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For more information about the flu, visit CDC.gov.
