Concerns rise over UK flu outbreak amid vaccine delays

LONDON (AP) — One of the United Kingdom's largest suppliers of seasonal influenza vaccines warned Saturday that there could be delivery delays of up to two weeks as a result of a shortage of truck drivers.

In a statement that has accentuated concerns about the potential scale of this winter's flu outbreak, vaccine company Seqirus blamed “unforeseen challenges linked with road freight delays” for the disruption to deliveries in England and Wales.

The company said it “is working hard to resolve the delay to allow customers to reschedule their influenza vaccination clinics.”

Though the severity of flu outbreaks varies each year, there are concerns that past lockdowns put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic might make UK residents more susceptible to the flu in the coming months.

“Clearly influenza immunisation this year is really important, and the reason it's so important is because of lockdowns, we've had very low circulating influenza levels last winter,” Oxford University professor Anthony Harnden said.

He is deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the British government on the rollout of vaccines.

“So we do know when there are low circulating influenza levels the year before, often we get high infection rates in the following year so it's quite possible that we'll have a high instance of influenza this year,” Harnden told the BBC.

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