H1N1 for everyone

Just to catch everyone up on the status of H1N1 vaccine development:

MedImmune says it's ready to deliver 5 million doses of inhaled H1N1 vaccine to US customers by the end of this month, looks like a winner to me.  I would be chary though of the effectiveness of this spray versus the traditional shot...it almost seems too good to be true (and too easy for that matter): MedImmune Article

Vical is touting it's data that it has developed a new H1N1 vaccine that will not only protect people against the strain of the virus that emerged this spring (the California variety), but also two other strains originating in different parts of North America.  What makes this jab different is that is DNA based and, if I understand it correctly, creates immunity based on what is similar between the 3 strains, not what is different such as specific H or N aspects of the flu virus.  If this works out, I could see this type of vaccine being very useful in future pandemic protection, but check it out for yourself:
  Vical Press Release

Lastly, most scientists are saying that an effective H1N1 vaccine will likely require a two dose series of shots and if these shots are available in mid October, full immunity may not be acquired till around Thanksgiving.  This could very well be too late to quell the epidemic that already seems to be sweeping through colleges across the US.  Then comes along Novartis, who says that it has proven the effectiveness of a single dose H1N1 vaccine.  Now, three things strike me about this.  The first is that yes, the vaccine can elicit a strong enough response after one dose to confer immunity (good thing), but a better response is received after two doses.  The second is that this vaccine is adjuvanted, which may deter some people from agreeing to it for fear of more significant reactions.  Third, the vaccine is cell derived instead of egg derived (the future of vaccine development, not that big of a deal since most vaccine manufacturers have some sort of cell cultured vaccine being researched).  It's hard to say if this announcement is meaningful or not because other developers might be able to show similar results with their own products. Check out the press release here.

If I was choosing the most promising of the three, I'd take Vical's DNA vaccine.  The technology sounds cool and I think it has the potential to be a broader spectrum shot than the others, but that's just my opinion.