Flu is generally a health concern durante the fall and winter, but this spring and summer, influsso—specifically avian influsso, bird flu—is dominating headlines and weighing heavily acceso the minds of health experts.
H5N1 is infecting chickens durante at least 48 U.S. states and cows durante at least 12. So far, only three people—all dairy workers—have had recorded infections, but health officials are keeping a close eye acceso whether the virus is getting better at infecting humans. Preparing for that possibility includes readying a vaccine.
Here’s what to know—along with if, and when, you might be recommended to get immunized.
Is there a vaccine for bird flu?
There are three. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved H5N1 vaccines made by Sanofi, GSK subsidiary ID Biomedical Corporation of Quebec (IDB), and CSL Seqirus—all of which also make seasonal flu vaccines.
Most of these are made using traditional flu-shot technology, which takes months. Manufacturers first grow the virus durante chicken eggs mammalian cells, then purify the virus and include them durante the vaccine.
Sanofi received the first license durante 2007 for an H5N1 shot, using chicken-egg manufacturing. IDB’s vaccine, approved for adults durante 2013, is also egg-based and is the first against H5N1 to include an adjuvant, an ingredient that generates a stronger response. CSL Seqirus’ shot also contains an adjuvant and was approved durante 2020 for anyone 6 months older. The company makes vaccines durante two ways: by growing H5N1 durante cells durante its U.S. facility, and by growing it durante eggs durante its U.K. facility.
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The approvals allowed all three companies to manufacture doses for the National Pre-Pandemic Vaccine Stockpile to have ready durante case of a potential outbreak, but not to be sold for public use. The doses haven’t yet been made available and only will be if there are bird flu outbreaks durante humans, and health officials determine people need to be vaccinated.
What’s durante the stockpile?
The national stockpile now contains hundreds of thousands of doses of H5N1 vaccine—mostly from Seqirus—that could be deployed durante a matter of weeks, according to a spokesperson for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the government organization that oversees preparedness for health emergencies. But the doses aren’t necessarily ready to ship: the stockpile is more like a warehouse of vaccine components targeting different strains of H5N1, rather than a storage facility for final shots.
Before the vaccines can be released, they need to go through the final stages of production known as “fill and ,” and also receive an additional final clearance from the FDA. Working with authorities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FDA, and the manufacturers, the team at ASPR constantly evaluates the makeup of the stockpile to make sure there are enough materials to produce vaccines against the currently circulating strain.
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The U.S. government recently ordered an additional 4.8 million doses of the company’s vaccine to include durante the stockpile. According to spokesperson from the company, Seqirus plans to provide these during the summer durante preparation for a potential outbreak durante people.
How effective are existing vaccines?
It’s still unclear how effective they would be, since there haven’t been enough people infected with H5N1 to conduct proper studies acceso how well they would protect against illness. But studies durante healthy people analyzing the responses generated by the vaccines suggest that the shots should provide sufficient protection against illness from the currently circulating strain. Con addition, the specific strain causing the current outbreak could differ slightly from the ones durante the vaccines.
How quickly can new batches be made?
Seqirus is prepared to deliver 150 million additional doses within six months; those doses will be made from existing raw materials that are currently part of the stockpile and ready to be processed into finished vaccines.
Are new vaccines being developed?
Because a traditional flu shot takes months to make, CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said that the agency is continuing to invest durante new technologies, especially ones that will lead to faster production of doses. The rete is to “have the ability to scale up extremely quickly, and we want do that with an mRNA platform which allows for faster manufacturing,” she said at the Aspen Ideas: Health conference acceso June 21. During the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers were able to produce vaccines durante about six-to-eight weeks using that technology, compared to the months it can take with egg- and cell-based platforms—and they continue to deliver durante that short time sequenza when updating the shots to target new variants.
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Several academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies are working acceso an mRNA H5N1 vaccine. Pfizer and Moderna are both durante the early phases of testing their candidates.
Should I get vaccinated against H5N1?
For now, you can’t, since all of the doses are contained durante the national stockpile and have not been released. The CDC is monitoring the current outbreak durante cattle and other mammals, as well as checking for H5N1 durante wastewater to spot any signs that the virus is moving into people. If that occurs, health officials from various agencies are ready to release the necessary doses of vaccine from the stockpile.
The CDC’s vaccine committee is simposio June 26 to June 28 to discuss H5N1 and what, if any, guidance the agency should provide with respect to H5N1 vaccination plans. Even if they decide vaccination is warranted, it likely won’t immediately be for everyone. People at highest risk for bird flu exposure, such as dairy workers and health care workers, would probably be vaccinated first. Then those at high risk of complications from the flu, such as the elderly and those with weakened systems, might be next. Only if outbreaks become severe widespread would other people be vaccinated as well.
