re: Effectiveness of the Flu Vaccine

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I know the effectiveness of the vaccines vary from one year to the next based on how well they predict the strains. So the vaccine this year only improves your chances of not getting the flu by 17%, and this is one of the best years ever. Am I reading that right?

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Overall, the VE estimate for protecting against having to go to the doctor because of flu illness was 56% for all age groups (95% confidence interval: 47% to 63%). (For background information on understanding VE estimates and confidence intervals, see Vaccine Effectiveness – How Well Does the Flu Vaccine Work? and go to the questions: “How does CDC present data on vaccine effectiveness” and “Why are confidence intervals important for understanding vaccine effectiveness?”) This VE estimate means that getting a flu vaccine this season reduced the vaccinated population’s risk of having to go to the doctor because of the flu by more than half. However, VE can vary across age groups and across different flu viruses, so CDC further analyzed the VE estimates to adjust for these factors. When broken down by different age groups, the VE against flu A and B viruses ranged from 27% in people 65 and older to 64% in children (aged 6 months to 17 years old).

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