In the United States, pharmaceutical companies plan to manufacture about 196 million doses to serve a population of 330 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is more than 175 million last year, an increase of 11%.
The giant cvR CVS pharmacy chain, which administers over-the-counter flu vaccines, is ordering 18 million doses, double the amount in 2019.
Vaccine manufacturer Seqirus plans to increase production in the United States by approximately 15%, from 52 million to 60 million doses, as does Sanofi, from 70 million to 80 million.
“There has been a massive call from our health care customers,” Michael Greenberg of Sanofi, North American’s regional vaccine medical manager, told AFP.
Sanofi, Seqirus and GSK are the 3 largest corporations on the market.GSK responded to a request for its vaccine production plans.
Sanofi sent its first batches on July 22, 3 weeks earlier than in 2019.
The CDC estimates that the flu killed between 24,000 and 62,000 years.
Widespread influenza vaccination can help loosen hospital beds, an important public health measure to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m worried about the fall,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University, told AFP.
Gostin recently wrote an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association calling for an influenza offensive, adding mandatory vaccines in schools.
“People don’t think about the flu, they think about COVID,” he says.
Americans are already among the highest number of people vaccinated against influenza in the world: vaccination begins at six months of age.
Other countries, such as France, propose it for others at risk of complications, adding those aged 65 and over.
As a result, 63% of young people and 45% of adults were vaccinated in 2018-2019; in the organization of age over 65, this figure is 68%.
But this year, Americans would probably have to look for new punches to get their shots.
“It’s going to be tricky for others to get the flu shot because they’re vaccinated in the pictures or at school, but a lot of checkered places and schools are closed,” Gostin said.
A remnant of hope?
Each year, the World Health Organization and the national government of fitness in February and March will likely be circulating next winter in the northern hemisphere.
Hundreds of millions of eggs, the classic of incubating viruses before inactivating them and converting them into vaccines, are delivered to laboratories, and production continues until spring until the syringes fill in summer.
In the United States, Sanofi reproduces these processes in two factories in Pennsylvania and New York.
It is possible for the same plants to produce a long-term coronavirus vaccine; however, for now, there is no festival between the two, Greenberg said.
In any case, Washington also gave the company $2 billion to expand its production capacity.
“There are no source problems at this time,” said Dave Ross, Seqirus’ vice president of North American commercial operations, adding that the company is working with partners to ensure good enough production of long-lasting COVID-19 vaccine vials and syringes.
Some people should be optimistic.
Public aptitude practices, such as social estrangement and coronavirus masking, also deserve to reduce the spread of other respiratory diseases besides influenza.