Errors When Creating the Flu Vaccine

The flu vaccines are viruses that are killed or highly weakened. When injected into the body it alerts the body to attack the actual virus if exposed. Flu vaccines have saved an estimated 40,000 people between 2005-2014. Researchers have been searching for the answer for a better way to grow accurate strains of the ever changing flu virus. For over 70 years flu vaccines have been grown in fertilized chicken eggs producing the best yield. 

Studies have shown that the vaccine produced from chicken eggs have a higher mutation rate because it tries to adapt to the environment of the egg. Which causes the vaccine strain to be mismatched from the current virus. The director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research has concluded that when the new vaccine strain is grown in the egg the egg mutates the strain resulting in less effective vaccines. New studies have shown that vaccines grown in chicken eggs were only 43 percent effective against the prevalent virus. Two studies  have concluded that the egg is the reason for high rates of mutations because the virus has created a new sugar molecule to evade destruction. Therefore, when injected into humans it is not as effective.  Scott Hensley, a microbiologist, has determined that growing the vaccines in canine kidney cells and insect cells resulted in more accurate strains of the active virus. The problem for this route of growth is that it does not provide the quantity necessary to effectively treat the population. 

In conclusion, it would be beneficial for us to create the vaccines using the canine kidney cells and the insect cells even though it comes at a higher price tag. I think it is very important for the population to get the flu vaccine. It has saved over 40,000 lives by providing your body with the ability to fight the virus. I work in a hospital environment where if one person gets sick it is easily transferred. The flu vaccine provides a way to limit the number of people affected by this illness.

 I chose this article because it is flu season and so many people are affected worldwide by the flu. In this article I learned about the different ways we can grow new vaccines and how it provides more accuracy to the current strain. I think if more people read this article and knew that it is more effective now that they would be more encouraged to get the flu vaccination. 

Work Cited
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flu-vaccine-ldquo-factories-rdquo-create-errors-that-reduce-protection/