DESPITE the halving of the US’s flu vaccine supply, there could be fewer deaths than normal this winter if people follow official advice, New Scientist’s analysis suggests.
Last week the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency suspended the licence of a factory in Liverpool owned by Chiron Vaccines. The suspension followed the discovery in August of the bacterium Serratia in some batches of flu vaccine. The UK, which was relying on Chiron for only 10 per cent of its supply, has been able to make up the shortfall, and the rest of Europe is mostly unaffected. But the US has been left with a huge…
