Flu season is right around the corner and it’s time for your annual flu shot. At the same time, COVID-19 is still around making everyone on their toes because both viruses have symptoms that overlap. AFC Urgent Care Norwalk now offers the quadrivalent flu vaccine and is here to help vaccinate our community and provide updated information on COVID-19. Here’s what you should know about the flu season of 2021 and how you can avoid the “twindemic”.
New updates for the flu vaccine in 2021
There have been updates to the vaccines to better combat possible strains in the 2021/2022 flu season. Here an updated list from The CDC about the new components in the vaccines:- The egg-based H1N1 vaccine component was updated from an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus to an A/Guangdong-Maonan/SWL1536/2019 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus.
- The cell- or recombinant-based H1N1 vaccine component was updated from an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus to an A/Hawaii/70/2019 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus.
- The egg-based H3N2 vaccine component was updated from an A/Kansas/14/2017 (H3N2)-like virus to an A/Hong Kong/2671/2019 (H3N2)-like virus.
- The cell- or recombinant-based H3N2 vaccine component was updated from an A/Kansas/14/2017 (H3N2)-like virus to an A/Hong Kong/45/2019 (H3N2)-like virus.
- The B/Victoria lineage vaccine component was updated from a B/Colorado/06/2017 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus to a B/Washington/02/2019 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus.
- The B/Yamagata lineage vaccine component was not updated.