Flu vaccine works better than feared, but it's still not great

The flu vaccine is working better than doctors feared but is still not completely effective. "Overall, this year’s vaccine is 36 percent effective, meaning it reduces the number of doctor visits by 36 percent". “Early estimates indicate that influenza vaccines have reduced the risk of medically attended influenza-related illness by about one-third in vaccinated persons so far this season,” the CDC says in its first report on how well the vaccine is working. It’s only 25 percent effective against the most common strain circulating this year, the H3N2 strain, CDC’s Dr. Alicia Fry and colleagues found. But the good news is that it works better in kids. "The vaccine provided 59 percent protection against H3N2 in children 8 and younger." Vaccine effectiveness is tricky to measure, because there is no way to know how many vaccinated people never got ill at all. For Thursday’s report, they looked at the cases of 4,562 kids and adults who showed up with flu-like illness at the five sites. Most did not even have flu — just 38 percent of them tested positive for flu. There are hundreds of viruses that can cause flu-like symptoms. A different CDC team looked at wider reports and found that only about a quarter of people showing up to the doctor’s office with flu-like symptoms actually had influenza. Of those who did have influenza, 43 percent had been vaccinated. And 53 percent of those who did not have flu had been vaccinated.[1 image, 1 link, 3 quotations, 244 words]
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flu-vaccine-works-better-feared-it-s-still-not-great-n848351