“There’s about a six month process to go from selection of the strains to then start manufacturing the vaccine to then scaling up and distribution,” said Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So the timing is critical in order to sort of make the deadline of getting the flu shot.”
“We have this independence from government, this independence from industry, and it provides a background of individuals who have a lot of expertise on the topic,” said Dr. Jon Temte, a UW-Madison professor of family medicine.
But he said the committees simply make a recommendation that federal officials can choose whether or not to adopt. He said the FDA commissioner could still make a decision about next year’s flu shot in the coming months.