Public healthFlu shots not effective enough in global outbreak, report finds

A new study reveals that seasonal flu shots are not effective enough to protect people in the event of a pandemic.

According to the study’s author, Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance at the University of Minnesota, the current vaccine only prevents 59 percent of vaccinated adults from infection.

In calling for the creation of a more effective flu vaccine, Dr. Osterholm likened the existing shot to using an outdated smartphone.

“Today’s flu shot is like an iPhone 1.0,” he said. “What we need is an iPhone 10.0.”

Osterholm said despite the study’s findings, people should not be discouraged from getting the vaccine.

“We have an obligation to tell the public what we know. We know we need better vaccines. But 59 percent protection is still better than zero. To me, that still very much recommends getting vaccinated,” he said.

One study found that flu shots can help reduce hospitalizations by 8 percent, a not insubstantial number considering that each year the flu hospitalizes 200,000 Americans.

“There isn’t any doubt that influenza vaccine is a pretty good vaccine, but it’s not an excellent vaccine, like polio or measles,” said Dr. William Schaffner, the head of the Department of Preventative Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Even in the best of times, it’s not capable of completely eliminating infections.”

In contrast, the measles vaccine prevents roughly 95 percent of infections while the polio vaccine has virtually eliminated the disease entirely.

Arnold Monto, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, explained that the technology to make flu vaccines has hardly changed since the 1940s.

“It’s been improved in terms of potency and in terms of safety,” Monto said. “But the basic principle is the same.”

In recent years, flu vaccine research has made some advances, but according to Monto it is still a challenge to bring a new vaccine to market due to the high costs of developing a shot significantly better than the existing one.

“One thing that’s held up the development of new vaccines is the fact that we have such a safe vaccine now,” he said.

In addition, flu shots are more difficult to create than other vaccines because the influenza virus mutates so frequently forcing researchers to change the ingredients of the vaccine each year to inoculate people against the germs currently in circulation. As a result, some years the vaccine is more effective than others.

Current H1N1 vaccines are slightly more effective than seasonal flu shots, preventing infection in 69 percent of adults younger than 65. Meanwhile nasal sprays have proven even more successful preventing infections in 83 percent of children under seven.

Partly due to growing fears of a global flu epidemic, scientists are at work on a “universal flu shot” that would last for several years.

Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, hopes that the universal shot will be completed in the next five years.