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Flu shots are an annual annoyance with limited effectiveness (on average between 40 and 60 percent.) There is now hope to eliminate this annual ritual and provide more effective protection with a potential universal flu vaccine in clinical trials.
To keep up with antigenic drift, scientists are constantly tweaking the flu vaccine, which is designed to respond to a surface protein called hemagglutinin, targeting what [Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infections Diseases (NIAID)] calls the "head" of the protein. "When you make a good response, the good news is you get protected. The problem is, the head is that part of the protein that has a propensity to mutate a lot."
The other end of the protein—the "stem"—is much more resistant to mutations. A vaccine that targets the hemagglutinin stem has the potential to provide protection against all subtypes of influenza and work regardless of antigenic drift, offering an essentially universal defense against the flu. NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is currently working to develop a candidate for a universal flu vaccine in a Phase 1 clinical trial, the first time the vaccine candidate has been given to people. Results on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine are due in early 2020.
Reason for hope in the future, but for now according to Fauci "The initial indicators indicate this is not going to be a good season—this is going to be a bad season."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Sunday January 19 2020, @07:33PM (5 children)
While your illness might have been related to getting the shot (it's possible) there are other more typical scenarios to consider also.
1) Already infected when you got the shot (too late)
2) Simply not protected from that strain by that shot
3) Protected, but weakened by other factors and infected anyway
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(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday January 19 2020, @11:16PM (3 children)
No, it's not possible. You can't get the flu from the flu shot because the flu shot does not contain live virus (the nasal spray does). You can get weakend, flu-like symptoms, which is your immune system reacting to the particles of the virus, but it wouldn't put you out for a week.
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(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday January 20 2020, @01:07AM (1 child)
Understood. I was actually thinking more an allergic reaction or contamination of some sort. Possible. Not probable.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @04:51AM
From a strictly technical standpoint, you aren't supposed to be able to get the flu. The recommendation that they don't give the weakened strain version to certain people is likely just a matter of caution.
However, if you look at the materials circulated with the shot, all of the symptoms of the flu are included. You'd have to get nearly all the side effects, but the only way to tell that from the actual flu would be to do some rather costly lab work.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @04:46AM
Not true, it's not supposed to put you out for a week, but that's not to say that it can't or doesn't happen. Severe reactions do happen and claiming it's not the case is simply a lie. If you look at the list of side effects from the shot, if you get most of them, that's going to be indistinguishable from the flu. It may not be the flu from a technical stand point, but it's a lie to say that it doesn't happen when it's a warning that's given to patients.
I personally fail to see any good reason to take the risk of having another severe reaction when I've never even had the flu in the first place. My brother had 2 MMR shots despite a minor reaction on the first and the second dose was an even worse reaction. He did not get a 3rd does because it was medically unwise to do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @09:19PM
no, you stupid bootlicking ass hat, it was the fucking shot.