By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration are scheduled to meet this month on influenza vaccines, the agency said on Feb. 25.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet on March 12 “to discuss and make recommendations on the strain composition of influenza virus vaccines for use in United States during the 2026-2027 influenza season,” the FDA said on its website.
The influenza season starts in the fall and runs into the following year.
Advisory committees offer nonbinding advice to the government. Officials usually follow the recommendations.
Vaccine companies and FDA experts usually present at the strain selection meetings. The upcoming meeting will include about an hour of presentations from the public.
Influenza vaccines are typically updated before each season. Strain selection attempts to predict which variant or variants will be circulating, to better prevent cases of the flu.
The effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies widely, depending on the year. Since 2009, the effectiveness has been as low as 19% and as high as 60%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal officials canceled the 2025 influenza vaccine strain selection meeting with its advisers. The agency later directed vaccine manufacturers to produce updated flu vaccines after consulting with the CDC and the Department of Defense.
Seasonal influenza activity is currently elevated across the United States, with 70.2 hospitalizations for flu per 100,000 people this virus season, according to the CDC. The agency says that 14,940 patients were admitted to hospitals with influenza in the week ending Feb. 14, and that 71 children have died with flu this season.
The CDC for years recommended yearly flu shots for nearly all Americans aged 6 months and older, but in January said that influenza vaccination for children should only happen after parents consult with doctors and consider factors such as the child’s characteristics and the risks and benefits of the vaccine.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, which partners with vaccine manufacturers, still recommends annual influenza vaccination.
The CDC change came after a review by health officials of vaccine schedules in 20 other countries showed that only eight recommended universal influenza vaccination. Austria and Canada recommend an annual influenza vaccine for all children 6 months and above, and all adolescents. Six countries recommend the shot for all children in selected age ranges, according to the review.
Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the FDA and CDC, have said that the vaccines remain available to people and are covered by insurers.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told CBS at the White House in January that it may be a good thing if fewer people get the flu vaccine.
“There is no evidence that the flu vaccine prevents serious disease or that it prevents hospitalizations or death in children,” Kennedy said, citing a 2018 review by the Cochrane Collaboration. The review’s authors said that flu vaccines reduced influenza cases and might reduce influenza-like illness, and that no data on hospitalization were available.
Authors of a different review said in 2025 that studies showed influenza vaccines perform well against hospitalization for children.
