I've been meaning to send this warning out for a month-ish. For reasons described here a month ago, this may be a rough flu season for the Northern Hemisphere: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-flu-season-warnings-9.6970982
Every year, scientists prepare a flu-shot based on an educated guess, about six months in advance, about which flu strains will predominate during the cold & rainy season, based in large part on what happened in the Southern Hemisphere during their winter. About one year in five, like this year, the guess ends up being a partial miss. The probable predominant strain is H3N2, which was _not_ one of the strains targeted by this year's shot. The shot will provide some protection, and make flu less severe if you get it, but not as good protection as in a typical year. Ramp-up time for flu vaccine protection is about two weeks, so get the shot _now_ if you're going to be social over the Christmas / New Year holidays, I'd say -- if you haven't already. _______________________________________________ Basfa mailing list [email protected] http://lists.basfa.org/listinfo.cgi/basfa-basfa.org
