A bomb explodes in the garage of New York’s World Trade Center, Six people are killed and more than 1,000 others are injured.
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http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/
During week 7 (February 12-18, 2012), influenza activity in the United States increased slightly, but remained relatively low.
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http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccine-selection.htm
Vaccine Selection for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 Influenza Seasons
Questions & Answers
Each year, experts from FDA, WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other institutions study virus samples collected from around the world to identify the influenza viruses that are the most likely to cause illness during the upcoming flu season so that people can be protected against them through vaccination.
On February 23, 2012 the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that the Northern Hemisphere’s 2012-2013 seasonal influenza vaccine contain the following three vaccine viruses:
While the H1N1 virus is the same, the H3N2 and B vaccine viruses are different from those that were selected for the Northern Hemisphere for the 2011-2012 influenza vaccine.
The WHO also recommended for those countries considering including two influenza B viruses in their vaccine, that a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus (from the B/Victoria lineage of viruses) be used.
During February 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC)
will meet to discuss the WHO recommendation. They will make a final decision for the composition of influenza vaccine that will be used in the United States for the 2012-2013 season.
The WHO Vaccine Composition Meeting was held February 21-23, 2012 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. A detailed report 
[408 KB, 16 pages] is available on the WHO web site.
The influenza (flu) viruses selected for inclusion in the seasonal flu vaccines are updated each year based on information about which influenza viruses are being found, how they are spreading, and how well the previous season’s vaccine viruses might protect against any that are being newly identified. Currently, over 100 national influenza centers in over 100 countries conduct year-round surveillance for influenza viruses and disease activity. These laboratories then send influenza viruses for additional analyses to the five World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centers for Reference and Research on Influenza, which are located in the following places:
Since the early 1980s, the seasonal flu vaccine has been trivalent (a three-component vaccine) with each component selected to protect against one of the three main groups of influenza viruses circulating in humans.
Three vaccine viruses are chosen to maximize the likelihood that the influenza vaccine will protect against the viruses most likely to spread and cause illness among people during the upcoming flu season. WHO recommends specific vaccine viruses for influenza vaccine production, but then individual countries make their own decisions for licensing of vaccines in their country. In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determines what viruses will be used in U.S.-licensed vaccines.
The WHO vaccine virus decision meetings include WHO representatives from the WHO Collaborating Centers, Essential Regulatory Laboratories, and others from the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN). After WHO makes its recommendations, the U.S. FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) meets to concur with or modify WHO’s recommendation for the United States.
The Northern Hemisphere’s 2011—2012 seasonal influenza vaccine contains the following three vaccine viruses:
These are the same viruses that were selected for the Northern Hemisphere for the 2010-2011 influenza vaccine.
On January 10 and January 27, 2011, the WHO selection process for which viruses to include in the seasonal influenza vaccine for the Northern Hemisphere began with teleconferences discussing influenza surveillance data.
The final WHO Vaccine Composition Meetingwas held February 14-16, 2011 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
After WHO made its recommendations for the Northern Hemisphere, the U.S. FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met in Bethesda, Maryland on February 25, 2011 and concurred with WHO’s recommendation. So the U.S. seasonal vaccine for the 2011-2012 season includes an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus, an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus, and a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.
On September 29, 2010, in Geneva, Switzerland, WHO recommended that the Southern Hemisphere’s seasonal influenza vaccine contain the following three vaccine viruses:
*Note: A/Wisconsin/15/2009 and A/Victoria/210/2009 are A/Perth/16/2009-like viruses.
The WHO recommendation and summary report are available on the WHO website. In addition, a frequently asked questions document [66 KB, 2 pages] on the vaccine strain selection process is also available on the WHO website.
Yes. People should get vaccinated every year because even if the viruses in the vaccine are the same as the year before, immunity to influenza viruses declines over time and may be too low to provide protection after a year. More information is available about the frequency and timing of flu vaccination.
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http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2012/O26-02-12/index.html
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http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/feb2412seroprev.html
Debate on H5N1 death rate and missed cases continues
Lisa Schnirring 
Staff Writer
Feb 24, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – Two leading voices on the potential threat of lab-modified H5N1 viruses laid out their arguments about the human H5N1 fatality rate and undetected cases today and yesterday, with one group claiming “millions” likely have been infected and the other group saying current World Health Organization (WHO) fatality-rate estimates are about right.
Here are the abstracts:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/02/22/science.1218888.abstract
ScienceDOI: 10.1126/science.1218888
Seroevidence for H5N1 Influenza Infections in Humans: Meta-Analysis
“The prevalence of avian H5N1 influenza A infections in humans has not been definitively determined. Cases of H5N1 infection in humans confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) are fewer than 600 in number, with an overall case fatality rate of >50%. We hypothesize that the stringent criteria for confirmation of a human case of H5N1 by WHO does not account for a majority of infections, but rather, the select few hospitalized cases that are more likely to be severe and result in poor clinical outcome. Meta-analysis shows that 1 to 2% of more than 12,500 study participants from 20 studies had seroevidence for prior H5N1 infection. ”
http://mbio.asm.org/content/3/2/e00045-12.full
doi: 10.1128/mBio.00045-12 24 February 2012 mBio vol. 3 no. 2 e00045-12
Osterholm MT, Kelley NS. 2012. Mammalian-transmissible H5N1 influenza: facts and perspective. mBio 3(2):e00045-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00045-12.
Mammalian-Transmissible H5N1 Influenza: Facts and Perspective
Two recently submitted (but as yet unpublished) studies describe success in creating mutant isolates of H5N1 influenza A virus that can be transmitted via the respiratory route between ferrets; concern has been raised regarding human-to-human transmissibility of these or similar laboratory-generated influenza viruses. Furthermore, the potential release of methods used in these studies has engendered a great deal of controversy around publishing potential dual-use data and also has served as a catalyst for debates around the true case-fatality rate of H5N1 influenza and the capability of influenza vaccines and antivirals to impact any future unintentional or intentional release of H5N1 virus. In this report, we review available seroepidemiology data for H5N1 infection and discuss how case-finding strategies may influence the overall case-fatality rate reported by the WHO. We also provide information supporting the position that if an H5N1 influenza pandemic occurred, available medical countermeasures would have limited impact on the associated morbidity and mortality.
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