Reply #31: I think the NIH has a trial vaccine

[gkhouston]

problem is, we don't know how closely related the vaccine is to whatever strain will be circulating when avian flu finally makes that big jump to being highly contagious among humans, so the vaccine could be useless or even worse than useless. I've read that if you get a flu shot for type X and your body is swimming with antibodies against type X and you then get infected with flu type X-prime, your immune system can actually be a bit slower to make the X-prime antibodies than if you'd never had the friggin' flu shot in the first place because it's all geared up to fight the type X battle. (This is not an argument against getting this year's ordinary flu shot, none of the strains in it are close to H5N1.) Of course, once that highly contagious form of H5N1 emerges, it's a game of beat-the-clock to get enough doses of vaccine produced, so I'm really not counting on a vaccine or antiviral meds to be of any help.