“While mismatched vaccines may still provide protection, enhanced genetic, antigenic and epidemiological (eg, vaccine effectiveness) monitoring are warranted to inform risk assessment and response,” Skowronski and colleagues concluded. Earlier this week, the UK Health Security Agency published a preliminary study finding that, despite the mismatch, this year’s shot still seems to provide important protection. The study found that soon after vaccination, the vaccine provided 70 to 75 percent protection against hospitalization in children aged 2 to 17 years, and 30 to 40 percent protection from hospitalization in adults. These protection levels are within the typical range for flu vaccines, but they’re more often seen at the end of a season—when vaccine protection has waned some—rather than early in the season, soon after vaccination. Still, officials called the results “reassuring.” In particular, officials noted the strong numbers in children, which parents can tell you, have the ability to be superspreaders. “The high vaccine effectiveness in children strengthens the case for ensuring all eligible young people get vaccinated,” Jamie Lopez Bernal, Consultant Epidemiologist for Immunisation at UKHSA, said. “When more children are protected, it helps stop the spread of flu to others around them.” “The bottom line is that it’s looking possible that we may be facing a very bad flu season this year, and the best thing we can all do right now to tackle the problem is to get vaccinated,” Adam Finn, professor of Paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said in a statement. Although it’s unclear how flu vaccinations are going in the US this season, at the end of last season, only about 47 percent of adults and 49 percent of children had received vaccinations.
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