The top local stories this morning from KERA News:
This year's flu season has been particularly bad in Texas. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state is experiencing widespreadactivity of the illness.
This year's vaccine has been less effective than usual because it doesn't cover the strain that's going around. Dr. Robert Legare Atmar, professor and interim chief of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, says the vaccine is about 50-to-60 percent effective on average because of the manufacturing process.
“We’re making an educated guess and the reason for that is that it takes the vaccine manufacturers that period of time to do all the safety testing [and] production of the vaccine to have it ready for next season, so they have to decide relatively early on,” Atmar said.
However, Atmar also says the vaccine still provides some degree of protection.
Other stories this morning:
- Our Big Screen team talked with the editor of The Dallas Morning News about the many journalistic questions explored in the upcoming film “The Post.”
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
