Bad news if your child doesn’t like flu shots: The alternative – a nasal-spray flu vaccine– is ineffective, federal data shows, and likely won’t be available next season.
This week, an expert advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended against using the nasal-spray vaccine to protect people from flu during the 2016 to 2017 season. The decision follows a review of three years of data that shows the vaccine, known as FluMist and made by AstraZeneca, only works 3 percent of the time.
Most adults don’t get the FluMist vaccine, but it’s a popular option for kids. About one third of all annual flu vaccines given to children over the past few years have been via nasal spray, data shows.
As recently as 2015, the CDC said the nasal spray vaccine was the best way to vaccinate young children against flu. The agency is now expected to adopt the advisory panel’s recommendation against the spray and tell doctors to administer flu shots instead.
The CDC said it will work with manufacturers throughout the summer to make sure enough flu shot vaccines are available by the time flu season starts.
Everyone 6 months and older should still get a flu vaccine, the CDC said. The regular flu shot is 49 percent effective, which represents millions of people protected from the flu, the agency said.
Has your child received the nasal-spray flu vaccine? Will this new recommendation affect your family?
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