CDC officials think this year's flu shot will work better than last year's

A flu shot.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It's called A/Switzerland/9715293/2013, and it's one of the reasons why your flu shot might not have worked last year.

The viral strain of H3N2 flu was behind most of the illnesses during last year's flu season, the Los Angeles Times reports, but it surfaced too late to be included in vaccines for the United States. The overall effectiveness of flu vaccines was just 23 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, meaning those who got vaccinated were 23 percent less likely than those who did not receive flu shots to get sick enough to go to the doctor.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.