Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/drhowardsmithreports/reel/DHWnueHvHxv/The World Health Organization and the UK’s Francis Crick Institute sponsored an international meeting of influenza virologists to select those strains of the flu virus to be included in the 2025-2026 Influenza vaccines.   This vital conclave, usually held in the US on an annual basis, was just canceled by the our current government.The 3 strains selected for next season’s vaccines include two influenza A strains and one influenza B strain.  As in the past, the WHO continues to recommend a trivalent vaccine. They are for egg-based vaccines: A/Victoria/4897/2022 (H1N1); A/Croatia/10136RV/2023 (H3N2; and B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage).  For cell culture-, recombinant protein- or nucleic acid-based vaccines they are: A/Wisconsin/67/2022 (H1N1); A/District of Columbia/27/2023 (H3N2); and B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage).  For those vaccine with 4 strains, so-called quadrivalent, the B/Phuket/3073/2013 (B/Yamagata line