Did The Flu Shot Work or Not? Apparently, One-Third of the Time
Have you had the flu this winter? Several have, and it caused overflowing clinic waiting rooms and several missed days of work and school. The big question this time of year is always the same? If I got the flu shot, did it work? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the total flu vaccine effectiveness was estimated at 36 percent.
However, the truth is that there were several strands of the flu out there this year. So pinpointing the effectiveness was a challenge, according to Time. So, the one-third percentage varied greatly depending on which strand of the flu a person got, as well as the person’s age.
If you got a particularly nasty strand of the flu, it was most likely to be Type A H3N2. KSFY News reported that the vaccine was only 25% effective for that one.
Here's the bad news if you think you may have "dodged a bullet:" there are several weeks left to go in flu season and health officials are still pushing for people to get vaccinations, in hopes of minimizing the impact of what has been a particularly brutal flu season.
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