Laurie Garrett was on ABC’s 7:30 Report tonight. There’s apparently a full interview on the website as well.
She was asked why younger people seem to be getting this flu worse than older people. She wondered about three possible reasons:
- Older people are more likely to have been vaccinated with the current vaccine last Winter (US seasons). This vaccine does have an H1N1 strain in it. Maybe this vaccine is giving some immunity. (Is this really possible??).
- Younger peoples’ immune systems can overreact: and actually end up harming or even killing them.
- Maybe teenagers are just more unhygienic.
She says the next few days are really important for determining if we have a real problem here.
