It’s official. This year’s flu season is here. I know this because of the 1,265 flu shots I gave last weekend. And the 1,263 times I had to explain the difference between the quadrivalent FluLaval vaccine and the ‘typical’ trivalent vaccine.
Short and sweet….The quadrivalent is prepared from two types of the A and B strains of the influenza virus (and is still grown in chicken eggs). Whereas the trivalent vaccine covers two A viruses and one B virus. You can tell from the price that GlaxoSmithKline (the company that manufactures the new vaccine) is quite proud of their new product and is hoping that consumers will buy into the “extra coverage” their vaccine provides.
Basically, the shot may offer some benefit for patients that are immunocompromised/high-high risk of contracting the flu. Other than that, unless you have insurance that actually covers the new vaccine (in which case…live it up…you only get ONE flu shot a year), the trivalent vaccine has you covered. The research for this year is stating that the trivalent vaccine is 80% effective at protecting you against B-virus strains (even though it has the 1-strain compared to the quadravalent’s 2-strains). Don’t stress and feel like you need to pay a waazoo of dollars for the newest thing out there, unless you have a money tree that you haven’t told me about :)
Anyway, I’d be happy to give any of you reading this your shot this year. It’d be my pleasure. Ohhhh yay…there’s one catch…you’re gonna have to visit me in Ohio. I just applied for my Tx intern license for my rotation that starts in January. So, right now I’m only “legal” here in Ohio.
Giving patients diabetes while they wait for their flu shots. Hummmfffff.
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