It’s the time of year for flu shots, but you might not know that there is more than one kind of flu vaccine. Indeed, half a dozen different types of flu shots are available for the 2022-2023 season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (opens in new tab). So which one should you get?
In general, flu shots are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older. The specific types of vaccines you can get depend mainly on your age, and certain flu vaccines are preferentially recommended for older adults. In addition, certain health conditions may affect which flu shot you can get. Here’s a rundown of the different types of flu vaccines available, and who’s recommended to get them.
People younger than 65 years old
For people younger than 65, the CDC does not preferentially recommend one type of flu vaccine over the other. That means people in this age group can choose to receive any flu vaccine type that’s approved for their age group. According to the CDC, these include:
Standard-dose, inactivated flu vaccines: These vaccines contain flu viruses that are grown in chicken’s eggs and then inactivated (killed). They are approved for people ages 6 months and older. A number of different brands of standard-dose flu shots exist, including: Afluria Quadrivalent, Fluarix Quadrivalent, FluLaval Quadrivalent and Fluzone Quadrivalent.
Cell-based flu vaccine: There is one cell-based flu vaccine available for the 2022-2023 flu season, called Flucelvax Quadrivalent. Rather than being grown in eggs, flu viruses in this vaccine are grown in cultured mammalian cells, meaning the vaccine is completely egg-free. This vaccine also contains inactivated flu viruses. It is approved for people ages 6 months and older.
Recombinant flu vaccine: There is one recombinant flu shot approved for the 2022-2023 flu season, called Flublok Quadrivalent. (The vaccine uses recombinant DNA technology, when scientists use genetic engineering techniques to combine DNA from multiple sources to create a new DNA molecule.) This vaccine doesn’t use the full influenza virus or chicken’s eggs in the production process. Instead, this vaccine is made synthetically. To make the vaccine, researchers combine a flu virus gene with a baculovirus — a virus that grows well in insect cells but doesn’t cause disease in humans — according to the National…
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