Flu Shots

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be immunized with the inactivated influenza vaccine over the Flumist for the upcoming 2018-19 flu season.

As many of you may know, FluMist was not recommended as a vaccination for infants and children last year because of its lack of effectiveness, discovered with use after the 2016 flu season. The manufacturer of FluMist, MedImmune, has changed to a new strain they think will be more effective. In February, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reviewed the MedImmune data on vaccine effectiveness and voted to reintroduce FluMist as an option for the 2018-’19 season. However, the data on whether or not it will be effective are not definitive.

The AAP Committee on Infectious Disease (COID), reviewed data on the effectiveness of the injectable flu vaccine compared with FluMist, and made the decision to recommend the injectable form of the vaccine because it has been more consistently effective against most strains of the flu virus. For this reason, our office will also be recommending the injectable form of the flu vaccine this year and will not be offering FluMist at this time.

For more information, read this article on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) site:
AAP influenza immunization recommendations revised for 2018-’19 season