If healthcare workers are the front lines of this battle why aren't they all being vacinated? Oh, nevermind, I forgot we mostly lived in a society of free choice. If the flu vacine worked maybe more Healthcare workers would be vacinated for the flu. So the FDA, WHO, and CDC get together every year and analyze data on virus patterns to identlfy virus strains that MAY cause the most illness in the upcoming season. These regulators didn't make the decision this month, or even last month. These influenza vacines were selected on February 14, 2008 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Regulators will hope to maintain a higher protection rate than in 2007/08, when the vaccine success rate was just 44%. So this year to make the regulators feel better about their selection please only come in contact with these influenza strains:
* an A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1)-like virus;
* an A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus;
* a B/Florida/4/2006-like virus.
Now, why would they have to make the selection so far in advance of the next season? So the drug companies will be able to get approval and manufacture more than 100 million doses of a 'flu vaccine usually requires a lead time of about eight months, with a potential rise in procurement as the winter months set in.
Where does the money end? Manufacturers are: CSL Limited, Afluria; GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Fluarix; ID Biomedical Corporation of Quebec, FluLaval; MedImmune Vaccines Inc., FluMist; Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited, Fluvirin; and Sanofi Pasteur Inc., Fluzone.
