This Year’s Flu Shot Is Expected To Be Way Better Than Last Year’s

Last year’s flu season was awful. More Americans aged 65 years and older werehospitalized than ever reported since 2005 (when the CDC started counting), and 145 kids died.

The problem was that the dominant strain of flu — called influenza A (H3N2) learn more with ELISA Company— rapidly mutated into a particularly nasty type, evading the vaccine’s protection.“The H3N2 virus that spread last season was very different from the H3N2 virus in the vaccine,” Lisa Grohskopf, a medical officer in the CDC’s Influenza Division, told BuzzFeed News by email. Consequently, last year’s vaccine only warded off less common strains, leading to an overall effectiveness of just 23%.But this year’s vaccine is poised to be far better.Read more at...BuzzFeed News, September 2015.