mindstalk | (Reply)

Hi! (I'm back!) I just wanted to post since I quite disagree with the influenza writer. First of all, we do NOT have the solution in hand. Every year we have to make a guess as to in which direction the strains will evolve and what strain is most likely to be a problem this year. It evolves so quickly that even when we do vaccinate a lot of people, it can change a month later to a strain that ISN'T covered and still cause problems. Not to mention influenza strains that are not poultry-based and thus are difficult to grow in eggs (our standard procedure now.) And that doesn't even cover the economics of the issue. It probably is much more costly to vaccinate all the young people in the U.S. with this vaccine that may or may not be helpful than have a number of young people miss a week or so of work. THAT's why we only vaccinate old people. Death is a lot more costly than being sick.

Until flu stops evolving on a monthly basis, there IS no easy solution to the problem.