I went to the supermarket for bread and while there, still holding the bread, I got vaccinated against the flu. The peculiarity of this quadrivalent Flublok vaccine (Protein Sciences) is that it is the only U.S. approved flu vaccine that uses moth cell cultivation and recombinant DNA technology, instead of cultivating the inactivated influenza virus in chicken eggs, as has been done for many years. Generally, I don’t care, but it should matter to those with egg allergies. It’s also convenient for the government since the vaccine production time was reduced from seven months to two. It is claimed that this new vaccine reduces the likelihood of contracting the flu by more than 40% compared to previous generations (study with 9000 individuals aged 50+, influenza A H3N2). Its trials were completed in 2017, and now it is used nationwide (along with dozens of others). The Fall Armyworm, in whose genetically modified cells this new vaccine is cultivated, is depicted in the attached picture.
Get vaccinated, the season is coming. In Russia, it seems there are no foreign vaccines available at all until mid-November. Approved are “Vaxigrip” by French Sanofi Pasteur and “Influvac” by Dutch Abbott, as well as Russian vaccines from Petrovax and Nasimbio.
