Monterey, CA Hospitals Admit 200,000 People To Year From The Flu

There has been a lot written about the ineffectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine. But fixing the situation is easier said than done. On average, flu season sends about 200,000 people to the hospital each year at a cost of $87 billion. Most of the people who got sick this year came from a strain which started in Switzerland which the World Health Organization looked at when coming up with the formula for the latest vaccine, but it was deemed less threatening than other strains and eventually was excluded. This resulted in the vaccine being only 23% effective in preventing the flu, and even lower for those over 50 years old according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “With influenza, every year it’s a crapshoot what will show up,” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infections, told Fortune Magazine. Researchers, however, are hopeful that they can develop a universal flu vaccine which would be effective against almost every strain. I hope the development of this vaccine happens quickly.