Making the 2020 Flu Vaccine

SWIFTWATER, MONROE COUNTY (WLVT-TV) - Lehigh Valley doctors’ offices and medical facilities are beginning to administer influenza shots for this season. A local company that manufactures the vaccine says demand is up this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Some people may not think about flu shots until the fall season is here, but a company in Monroe County has vaccines on the brain all year long. The head of the influenza franchise in the U.S. for Sanofi Pasteur Chris Whitman says demand at the Swiftwater plant is up 15% in 2020. Whitman says "the 15%, for us this year represents 80 million doses to the market and that increases off of a normal influenza season for us, which is in that last year was 68 million doses. So there are 12 million new people that will be getting a standard influenza vaccine this year, that wasn't available to them last year, just given the demand being so different. "

Whitman says the shot is different every year. He says the World Health Organization directs manufacturers on what strains need to be contained in each seasonal influenza vaccine.