Shots - Health News A Worm's Ovary Cells Become A Flu Vaccine
Machine Originally published on Wed January 23, 2013 8:57 am As
the flu season grinds on from news cycle to news cycle, there's
some flu news of a different sort. Federal regulators have
approved a next-generation type of flu vaccine for the second
time in two months. The two new vaccines are the first fruits of
a big government push to hasten and simplify the laborious
production of flu vaccines. But alas, there's no firm evidence
that either the newfangled flu vaccine approved last November,
called Flucelvax, or the even newerfangled one the Food and Drug
Administration greenlighted this week, called Flublok, will be
any more effective in preventing flu than ordinary vaccines.
This season's conventional flu vaccine prevents illness 62
percent of the time among people who get it — certainly better
odds than no vaccination, but not great. Protection is even
poorer among people over 65, whose immune systems are weaker.
Flucelvax was the first approv