Coronavirus

Shots – Health News : NPR

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This year’s flu shot protects against 3 strains instead of 4 : Shots – Health News : NPR

This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade.

That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health.

Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.

This surprised many who study influenza, as it would be the first documented instance of a virus going extinct due to changes in human behavior, said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

I think muzzle season is back 😷

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I decided I am going to start wearing my muzzle in the office downtown and on the buses especially when I am around a crowd of people, especially with the weather being so rainy and in the mercury in the forties.

I also scheduled my COVID and flu boosters for Thursday evening. I wanted to do them before work so I could ride my bicycle there but I can walk there after dark instead as the weather looks fine. Or use my bike lights. I don’t like shots and I’m not doing it because I’m patriotic or a Biden supporter but because I just don’t want to get sick.

I really don’t want to get sick at this point if I can at all avoid it.