A patient is given an intramuscular shot of flu vaccine. (Rogelio V. Solis)

“A major influenza epidemic is taking hold across much of the United States, but there’s a curious lack of coverage in the media.”

“New York City and much of the U.S. are a week or two into a major influenza epidemic. Boston declared a public-health emergency Wednesday after reporting four deaths, and North Carolina is seeing its biggest number of cases in a decade. To place the problem into graphic corporate terms, the charts sent around to compare this year’s activity with other years’ have required rescaling to accommodate the scary red line going up and up.

“Perhaps it’s not a surprise. After all, flu dilly-dallied last season, barely making a peep. So maybe we’re owed a compensatory wallop. But no one really knows just why this season is so bad. We try to do all the right things—we unceasingly rub our hands with waterless alcohol products, we have learned how to sneeze and cough into the crooks of our elbows, and of course, we are receiving more vaccine than ever: some states require it of their health-care workers, and the drugstore chains, with their wide reach and slippery advertising, have set about vaccinating everyone else.

“So what went wrong? One alarming possibility is that this year’s vaccine against influenza is not well matched to the current disease-causing strains. This exposes a significant problem in the modus operandi of influenza-vaccine production—it’s mired in techniques and approaches developed before World War II; in fact, soldiers from that war were among the first to get this brand of vaccine. Here’s how it works: each year, around February, world experts select from a menu of dozens just three influenza strains—two of flu A and one of flu B—to place into the coming season’s vaccine. More than three would require a shot with too large a volume and might blunt the body’s immune response. Once selected, the three viruses are grown painstakingly, on hen’s eggs (what year is this?). Then, after a big-enough crop has been raised, the virus is killed, stabilized, and sent around for injections—all on the hope that the experts guessed right.”

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