Saturday, October 1, 2016

Researchers Devise a New Type of Universal Flu Vaccine

After one case of influenza when I was young, I was a convert for life and I've been getting flu shots ever since to make as highly damn sure as I can be I won't get it again.  If you're not delirious and begging for death, it's probably not full-blown flu.  Scientists have now devised a 'new generation of universal flu vaccine' and it appears to be comprehensive enough to warrant that title.  (Science Daily: Universal flu vaccine designed by scientists)

The researchers have devised two universal vaccines;

· a USA-specific vaccine with coverage of 95% of known US influenza strains

· a universal vaccine with coverage of 88% of known flu strains globally

- Science Daily

Note:  the vaccines are not commercial products and the researchers are looking for commercial partners to further develop them.  Their concept is not new but their approach to it is different which they believe means these vaccines will be much more successful than those previous.


Anti-vaxxers won't take the new flu shots but in the modern context they're known as carriers and they're expendable.  Charles Darwin won't miss them.

To any who actually care to find some awareness on the subject, the influenza epidemic of 1918 was one of the worst of the modern pandemics and these killed millions of people worldwide.  One of the most unusual things about it was it had high success in killing healthy young people who would normally have been able to withstand such a thing.


Sidenote:  America was just proclaimed 'measles free' but that's kind of an odd statement to make after measles breakouts at least twice in the last year and those specifically caused by anti-vaxxers.


Marginally-related is a shot for pneumonia.  Maybe you're technical enough to differentiate between 'a shot' and a vaccination but I'm not.  I do know the pneumonia shot is good for ten years and efficacy is high.  It's likely not hyperbole to say the shot saved my life since pneumonia has been ruthlessly destructive with me.

The reason for differentiation is I remember vaccinations as a kid and there was a procedure to it.  There was also the special advisory since 'Mummy said you must not scratch that' and the advisory was important since, who knows, maybe your arm will turn green and fall off if you scratch.  Maybe doctors don't need that hocus pocus anymore and they have some cool newer way since my experience is sixty years ago and the procedure just might have changed.

In any case, the pneumonia shot is highly-recommended since it has worked like a champ for me and has been continuously effective for probably five years now.


Likely one of the most important changes America has made to health care in recent memory has been facilitating the availability of injections for standards (e.g. flu, pneumonia, etc) which need to reach millions of people.  That likely made flu shots available to more people, particularly of low income, than anything had ever done previously.  There was a time not long ago when such shots were only available in a doctor's office or a hospital but now you can get them at Walmart or any drug store.  That simple change likely saved many, many lives or, at a minimum, made them healthier.

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