Making a vaccine, and would you want to get it?

CDC has been talking about the steps they are taking that would make it possible to manufacture an effective vaccine for H1N1 flu. They just released some research yesterday that makes them pretty sure that the seasonal flu vaccine won't help at all for this novel (new) H1N1 virus.

It's quite a process to develop vaccine, not to mention the FDA approval process, called clinical trials, that would be necessary to get it into the arms of people.

First, they have to isolate the virus. The good news about is that this particular H1N1 flu virus (and there are many other H1N1s) has remained pretty stable over this last month, so it's not like they are chasing something that is changing every time they look at it.

Then, they have to try to grow the virus to see if it will replicate so they can make anything out of it. If so, this "candidate" virus is shared with manufacturers.

The production people do testing to see if they will be able to make enough vaccine and what dose will generate the immune response that they want. They can add stuff to the vaccine to improve the immune response -- stuff called adjuvants -- which might help reduce how much antigen is needed to get the desired immune response.

OK, so if you are following so far, they are saying it looks promising for a vaccine and the feds have dedicated $1 billion (!) to the clinical studies needed to get it approved and the commercial production.

All this is to be ready if this virus reemerges with some fury in the future, maybe even this fall. Pretty interesting.

So, what do you think? Do you get a seasonal flu shot? If this flu comes back with a vengeance, would you want to be vaccinated?