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The Good News Podcast is your thrice weekly reminder that not all news is bad.
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Hi, I'm Neil, the host of the Good News podcast.
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This is your source for good news, fun stories and Sonic Joy.
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All of this goodness is coming to you from beautiful Chicago Illinois for today's episode of the Good News podcast.
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I'd like to update you on a story.
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We first ran about 18 months ago.
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It involves one of the four strains of flu virus that the yearly flu vaccine protects against.
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Back then, I shared the disappearance of the Yamagata strain and I'll play that original episode at the end of this one.
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But I, I am delighted to tell you that as of the 2024 2025 season, that flu vaccine will only need to target three strains of the flu versus four.
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Recently, a panel of experts advised the US, food and drug administration to create a trivalent vaccine that is just focused on the three strains of the flu virus that are still kicking around in the US.
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And this lines up with what the World Health Organization is recommending as well.
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So it seems like post COVID, one of four major strains of the flu virus is officially extinct of course, doctors will still be on the lookout to make sure that this change is permanent, but it's pretty darn good news.
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I'll play the original episode now.
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Thanks for listening.
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Today's good news comes to us from the Netherlands where flu researchers have been having a hard time finding a strain of the flu.
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It seems that one of the four main seasonal flu variants might have gone extinct as a bit of background.
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There are traditionally four types of seasonal flu that the yearly flu vaccine attempts to vaccinate against.
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And this year one of those four, the flu strain B Yamagata is essentially non existent surveillance data from the World Health Organization's flu net had a few detections in 2021.
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But in 2022 there have only been eight detected cases in four countries and it's likely those were just false positives from flu vaccine shots to put that into perspective, there were 51,000 detections of that strain of the flu in 2018.
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The prevailing theory is that the Coronavirus travel restrictions, quarantines, physical distancing, all of those things we were doing to mitigate the spread.
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Also meant that there was basically no 2020 2021 flu and that may have more or less knocked out one entire strain of the flu per usual with any new science.
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There's still more work to be done and more data to be collected.
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But there is definite potential good news here.
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That a big chunk of the seasonal flu has been knocked out permanently.
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That is the good news I have for you today.
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Enjoy the rest of your day.
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Thanks for listening.
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If you've got good news or an idea for the show, amazing.
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Send an email to hello at the good news podcast dot FM.
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While you're at it, follow us on Twitter at the good news pod.
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If you love the show, think about supporting our Patreon or reviewing us wherever you're getting this podcast from, both are great.
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The music you hear on the show is from Paddington Bear.
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Have a great day.