Request from a virologist- on #influenza As you can see from the Southern Hemisphere flu season, there is very little flu. This is great news..except, we select the viruses that go into the vaccine each year based on what is circulating globally.

Every influenza virus detected therefore needs to be characterised, that is checked against the immunity mounted by the response to the current vaccine. If it’s not great then the vaccine is changed to ensure a better match

This is going to be difficult, esp as we’ve moved towards rapid diagnosis in ED and mass testing so few samples are available to send to the reference lab. It’s likely therefore that the vaccine composition might have to remain the same going into the 2021/22 season

What’s the problem with this? Nothing I suppose, but the reason the flu numbers are down are because of the social distancing and other strategies we’ve employed to stop SARS-CoV-2. As these measures are lifted over the next year, flu will start circulating again

If the vaccine no longer matches the virus - then we could have a significant flu epidemic in the horizon following the pandemic. So, when implementing testing for flu this year, please remember this and make sure all flu positive samples are forwarded to a reference lab. Thanks