With Halloween behind us, the most wonderful time of year is almost here, flu season! The COVID pandemic set a new precedent for how we treat public health in the United States. People came together to slow the spread and help save as many lives as possible. With the release of the vaccine more and more are getting vaccinated every day allowing the pandemic to come to an end all the sooner.
Despite this wave of concern with public health and a desire to get vaccinated with the COVID vaccine, when it comes to the flu vaccine it is almost like nothing has changed at all. During the 2020-2021 flu season the CDC estimated that only 50 to 55% of adults in the U.S. got the influenza vaccine.[1] While this number is up from 48% vaccination rate during the 2019-2020 flu season [1] it is still abysmally low.
What many people do not know is that the flu vaccine actually works in a very similar manner to the COVID Vaccine. It takes about 2 weeks to be effective, it is not 100% effective and the possibility of getting sick still remains, but even if you do you get sick the symptoms will be far less intense and the chance of getting hospitalized is greatly reduced thanks to the vaccine, and finally, the flu vaccine can be lifesaving to high-risk individuals.[2] Again, despite these similarities, people are much less eager to get the flu vaccine than the COVID vaccine.
Perhaps it is due to the fact that the flu has a lower mortality rate than COVID. It is important to understand that, while it is lower, it is not 0. The flu can and does kill people, especially high-risk individuals like the elderly. It can be easy to forget this sometimes due to how common the flu is in our lives. Just as we care to help protect others against COVID we should care to help protect others against the flu.
The flu vaccine has to be approved by the FDA before it is made available on the market, just as with any other biologic. Market approval is an important part of production, EMMA International can help get products approved by the FDA no matter what pathway it needs. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices to biologics, EMMA International can products approved and on the market, give us a call at 248-987-4497 or email info@emmainternational.com to get in touch with our team of experts today.
[1] CDC (October 2021) 2020-21 Flu Season Summary, Retrieved 11/01/2021 from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm
[2] CDC (October 2021) Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine, Retrieved 11/01/2021 from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/keyfacts.htm
