Health

Flu Winds Down as FDA Aims for Better Vaccine Next Winter

Published

11 years ago

March 5, 2015

In this Sept. 18, 2104 file photo, a flu shot is given at the National Press Club in Washington. The miserable flu season is winding down but not quite over yet, health officials said Wednesday, even as the government picked what they hoped would be a better vaccine recipe for next fall and winter. If it seems early to worry about the next flu season, well, producing 140 million doses of vaccine requires starting months in advance. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The miserable flu season is winding down but not quite over yet, health officials said Wednesday, even as the government picked what it hoped would be a better vaccine recipe for next fall and winter.

If it seems early to worry about the next flu season, well, producing 140 million doses of vaccine requires starting months in advance.

It’s a process that’s part science, as researchers track what flu strains are spreading in different parts of the world to predict what may come here. And it’s part luck, as this year showed when a surprise new version of an aggressive flu strain — one that arose too late to be added to the vaccine — swamped the country.

Wednesday, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration urged the government to explore ways to improve how each year’s flu vaccine is created.

“It’s hard for me to believe that we cannot do better,” said Dr. Pedro Piedra of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Meanwhile, the panel recommended that next winter’s flu vaccine be sure to include the new H3N2 strain, as influenza cases around the world suggest it’s still spreading.

The flu season peaked in January and is steadily declining but there’s still a lot of illness around the country, Dr. Lisa Grohskopf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The vast majority was caused by a nasty version of Type A flu, the so-called H3N2 branch of the viral family that tends to trigger more pneumonia and other complications than other forms of influenza and is particularly risky to seniors. Indeed, this winter’s flu-related hospitalizations of people 65 and older were at their highest since the government began tracking that in 2005, Grohskopf said. And while it’s too soon to know the death toll, the CDC does closely track flu-related child deaths, now at 92, close to the yearly average of 100.

Part of the problem: This year’s vaccine was only about 18 percent effective against that H3N2 strain, Grohskopf said.

Why? Flu viruses constantly mutate, and the vaccine is changed yearly to keep up based on what scientists see circulating in other countries. Each year it contains protection against two Type A strains — a version of H3N2 and a version of H1N1 flu, such as the swine flu that was so common a few years ago — and, depending on the brand, protection against either one or two versions of milder Type B flu.

Last February, FDA’s advisers recommended the recipe for this year’s vaccine. Then in March, the CDC noticed a few cases of a slightly different H3N2 strain starting to circulate, a strain just different enough that the vaccine wouldn’t provide protection against it — but no one knew if enough would spread for that to matter.

The so-called drifted strain slowly grew more common over the summer. By late September, it accounted for half the strains in a global count, but U.S. vaccine production was already finished.

It’s the fourth time in 20 years there’s been an important mismatch with the vaccine. Wednesday, FDA’s advisers asked how to better guard against that happening again.

“Were there any signs we could have picked up that it was drifting?” asked Dr. Patrick Moore of the University of Pittsburgh.

Not in time to change vaccine production, responded CDC acting deputy flu director Jacqueline Katz. A few flu strains pop up every year that don’t react well to the flu vaccine, but most fade away and there’s no good way to predict which may be a real threat until they spread more widely, she explained.

Since H3N2 is the harshest type, why not postpone a decision on which strain to include in the vaccine while manufacturers get started brewing the rest? That would take a lot of coordination to work, Katz cautioned.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

How Much Sugar is in That? 7 Foods With Added Sugar

Don't Miss

SF Hospital Performing Kidney Swap Chain Involving 12 People

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

COMMENTARY: The Biases We Don’t See — Preventing AI-Driven Inequality in Health Care

For decades, medicine promoted false assumptions about Black bodies. Black patients were told they had lower lung capacity, and medical devices adjusted their results accordingly. That practice was not broadly reversed until 2021. Up until 2022, a common medical formula used to measure how well a person’s kidneys were working automatically gave Black patients a higher score simply because they were Black. On paper, this made their kidneys appear healthier than they truly were. As a result, kidney disease was sometimes detected later in Black patients, delaying critical treatment and referrals.

Published

3 weeks ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D (D-San Diego). File photo.

By Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., Special to California Black Media Partners

Technology is sold to us as neutral, objective, and free of human flaws. We are told that computers remove emotion, bias, and error from decision-making. But for many Black families, lived experience tells a different story. When technology is trained on biased systems, it reflects those same biases and silently carries them forward.

We have seen this happen across multiple industries. Facial recognition software has misidentified Black faces at far higher rates than White faces, leading to wrongful police encounters and arrests. Automated hiring systems have filtered out applicants with traditionally Black names because past hiring data reflected discriminatory patterns. Financial algorithms have denied loans or offered worse terms to Black borrowers based on zip codes and historical inequities, rather than individual creditworthiness. These systems did not become biased on their own. They were trained on biased data.

Healthcare is not immune.

These biases were not limited to software or medical devices. Dangerous myths persisted that Black people feel less pain, contributing to undertreatment and delayed care. These beliefs were embedded in modern training and practice, not distant history. Those assumptions shaped the data that now feeds medical technology. When biased clinical practices form the basis of algorithms, the risk is not hypothetical. The bias can be learned, automated, and scaled.

For us in the Black community, this creates understandable fear and mistrust. Many families already carry generational memories of medical discrimination, from higher maternal mortality to lower life expectancy to being dismissed or unheard in clinical settings. Adding AI biases could make our community even more apprehensive about the healthcare system.

As a physician, I know how much trust patients place in the healthcare system during their most vulnerable moments. As a Black woman, I understand how bias can shape experiences in ways that are often invisible to those who do not live them. As a mother of two Black children, I think constantly about the systems that will shape their health and well-being. As a legislator, I believe it is our responsibility to confront emerging risks before they become widespread harm.

That is why I am the author of Senate Bill (SB) 503. This bill aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare by requiring developers and users of AI systems to identify, mitigate, and monitor biased impacts in their outputs to reduce racial and other disparities in clinical decision-making and patient care.

Currently under consideration in the State Assembly, SB 503 was not written to slow innovation. In fact, I encourage it. But it is our duty must ensure that every tool we in the healthcare field helps patients rather than harms them.

The health of our families depends on it.

About the Author

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D–San Diego) is a physician and public health advocate representing California’s 39th Senate District.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

As California Hits Aging Milestone, State Releases Its Fifth Master Plan for Aging

“California’s Master Plan for Aging started a powerful movement that is shaping the future of aging in our state for generations to come,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement, calling the initiative a “future-forward” model delivering real results for older adults, people with disabilities, and their families.

Published

3 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

On Jan. 27, California released its Fifth Master Plan for Aging Annual Report,titled “Focusing on What Matters Most,” outlining the state’s progress and priorities as its population rapidly grows older.

The report, issued by the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS), provides updates on the Master Plan for Aging’s “Five Bold Goals”: housing, health, inclusion and equity, caregiving, and affordability.

The report comes as Californians aged 60 and older now outnumber those under 18 for the first time, a demographic shift expected to accelerate over the next decade.

Launched in 2021, the Master Plan for Aging takes a “whole-of- government” and “whole-of-society” approach, coordinating state agencies, local governments, community organizations, and private partners. The annual report highlights significant milestones, including more than 100 California communities joining AARP’s Age-Friendly Network and $4 million in state funding awarded to local organizations to develop aging and disability action plans in 30 communities statewide.

The report also underscores California’s leadership at the national level, noting that dozens of states have followed its example and that federal legislation inspired by the plan was reintroduced in the U.S. Senate in December 2025.

CalHHS Secretary Kim Johnson emphasized the plan’s focus on equity and resilience amid ongoing challenges.

“The Master Plan for Aging continues to provide a vision, a focus, and a platform for collaboration,” Johnson said. “Equity is at the center of all that we do.”

Looking ahead, the report notes that by 2030, one in four Californians will be age 60 or older, positioning the Master Plan for Aging as a central framework for meeting the state’s long-term social, economic, and health needs.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Community

Candidates Vying for Governor’s Seat Debate at Ruth Williams–Bayview Opera House in San Francisco

The gubernatorial debate participants included Antonio Villaraigosa, former Los Angeles mayor; Matt Mahan, San Jose mayor; Betty Yee, former California state controller; Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and attorney general of California; Steve Hilton, political commentator and political adviser; Tom Steyer, entrepreneur, and Tony Thurmond, California’s superintendent of public instruction.

Published

3 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

Oakland Post

The gubernatorial debate was hosted by KTVU’s Greg Lee, KTTV’s Marla Tellez and KTVU’s Andre Senior. The candidates are (l.-r.): Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Betty Yee.

By Carla Thomas

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, seven candidates took the stage at the historic Ruth Williams–Bayview Opera House in San Francisco for the gubernatorial debate, hosted by the Black Action Alliance (BAA) in partnership with KTVU and sister station KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles.

For many voters, it marked a first opportunity to hear directly from several candidates seeking to lead the nation’s most populous state.

Crucial topics and issues addressed throughout the debate included housing, crime, immigration, climate change, health care and homelessness.

The debate was moderated by KTVU political reporter Greg Lee alongside KTVU’s Andre Senior and KTTV Fox 11’s Marla Tellez.

Candidates also addressed inflation and the rising costs across the state, impacting everything from groceries to childcare and health care.

Thurmond vowed to generate 2.3 million units of housing by placing 12 units on each parcel of available land in the 58 counties of California. Steyer agreed that billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes.

Hilton wanted to cut taxes, help working-class families, and end the Democrats “climate crusade and insane regulations.”

Yee offered a more transparent governmental approach with accountability, given the state’s debt.

Gonzalez said, “This debate was a great way to see who has great ideas and who has substance.”

“It’s important to have the debate within a community that requires the most,” said business leader Linda Fadekye.

Attendees included State Controller Malia Cohen, representatives of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the National Coalition of 100 Black Men, the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce, and Black Women Organized for Political Action, among others.

Event host, the Black Action Alliance (BAA) was established to amplify the voices of the Bay Area’s Black community, whose perspectives have too often been overlooked in politics and public policy.

Loren Taylor, CEO of BAA, said it was important to bring the event to the Bayview in San Francisco and shared his organization’s mission.

“The Black Action Alliance (BAA) stands for practical, community-driven solutions that strengthen public safety, address homelessness, support small businesses, expand affordable housing, and ensure access to quality education—issues at the heart of the Black experience in the Bay Area,” said Taylor.

California’s primary election will take place on June 2 and the general election will take place on Nov. 3.