Poor vaccine ‘match’ leads to flu outbreak
By Eric Seiverling
eseiverling@yourmvi.com
Do you have a nagging cough that just won’t go away? Having a tough time getting back to 100% after an illness from a few weeks ago?
You’re not alone.
And while it may be easy to blame the fluctuating temperatures outside or a workplace that offers little in the way of airflow, at least one local hospital is blaming this season’s flu shots for the influenza pandemic sweeping through the area.
Dr. Richard Sullivan, director of the emergency department at Jefferson Hospital, said this season’s flu vaccines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not been as effective as in previous years.
He blames the vaccine being a poor “match” for the active virus that is currently circulating throughout the population.
“The vaccine is actually dead flu viruses,” Sullivan said. “The CDC will produce the vaccine in mass quantities. Sometimes they predict correctly what viruses will come to America. If the CDC predicts correctly, we have a mild season. This year, we’ve seen about a 50% to 60% success rate.”
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