First off, if you are going to get a flu shot, does it matter when you get it? Flu almost never starts spreading before mid November or December, and the shots only work for several months (when they work) and they achieve maximum effect 2-4 weeks after receipt. So the best time to get one (if you really must) would be around Nov 1.

CDC lets us know this, sort of, though the agency recommends vaccinations as early as July and even up until April 1 (when the flu season will have ended before the shot kicks in).

For elders, who have weaker immune systems that often fail to respond to flu shots or respond poorly, CDC admits that vaccinations during July and August should be avoided, because any protection the shots confer is likely to have worn off before flu season starts—though they don’t actually tell you the reason for this recommendation.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/hcp/vax-summary/acip-recommendations.html

There are many different types of flu shots. The federal agencies don’t like to talk about this much. They won’t explain that flu shots are a mechanism for testing new vaccine platforms, which may be needed in the future (of course!) to save us from future deadly pandemics or biowarfare.

This is why FDA and CDC have not selected the best vaccine platforms for purchase for Medicare, Medicaid and Vaccines for Children programs (paid for by taxpayers), but instead buy a variety of shots made using a variety of methods, and do not seek out the lowest cost vaccines.

Here is a list of vaccines that CDC has purchased for the programs I just mentioned, but it omits the newly approved mRNA flu shots that will be in pharmacies within days:

The Fluzone shots for elders and the Fluad shots for elders are more dangerous than the others. Fluzone contains 4 times the regular dose of antigens. Fluad contains the novel, squalene-containing adjuvant MF59, designed to nonspecifically rev up the immune system and cause extra inflammation. They cost more, too. But since Obamacare’s rules came into being, you don’t see this cost, as your insurance plan must pay 100% of it.

Flucelvax (“cell-based”) is made in recombinant dog kidney cells. The factory in Holly Springs, SC built to use this method had numerous problems and was sold by Novartis at a massive loss to taxpayers. I don’t know whether the shots are problematic, but I would avoid them.

The Flublok vaccine is made in Fall Armyworm cells, using a baculovirus vector to infect them to produce the desired antigens.

They contain residual DNA and proteins from the worm and the virus, according to the label.

When you request a flu shot, you will not receive the one you desire. Instead you will be given one of these shots, chosen by others for you. You will not be told there exists a menu of shots to choose from.

I asked google’s AI to list the shots by type, since CDC’s diagram made sure not to explain their differences:

FluMist is the only live vaccine of the bunch, which theoretically can be spread to those immunocompromised people for whom the shot mandates are allegedly intended—you get the shot because they cannot tolerate either a live shot or the disease. The fact that a contagious vaccine is given to schoolchildren shows us that the system does not really care all that much about the immunocompromised; it just wants the right to impose mandates.

mFLUSIVA is the mRNA vaccine that is probably the straw that finally led to the firing of Vinay Prasad at FDA. He refused to consider it for a license. Once he was out, it sped through an FDA review and is now available to the public for this flu season.

The reason that other flu shots can be approved so readily is because they are the only shots to be grandfathered in. Because if you waited to conduct a controlled clinical trial, the flu season would be over. So each year’s flu shot is hooked to the license from an earlier year flu shot—this is the legal fig leaf that allows the shots to be so readily produced.

HOWEVER, there is no licensed, previous year mRNA flu shot, so that type of sleight of hand won’t work for the new mRNA flu shot.

So how was it licensed? Was it based off a clinical trial of an experimental vaccine, performed in a recent year? It would be worth knowing this.

Addendum: It seems FDA chose one of the accelerated approval paths for mFLUSIVA. FDA needs to regulate it as gene therapy. I am wondering if a lawsuit needs to be filed about this. Probably a Citizen Petition is the first step.

https://www.modernatx.com/ir-insights-mflusiva

Watch out! They are only getting started!