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1 Reason Flu Vaccines Are So Lousy: They're Grown in Eggs

The way flu vaccines are made is slow, clunky and prone to errors

Last year's influenza vaccine reduced the number of flu-related visits to the doctor by 42 percent, and the vaccine reduced a specific strain of flu virus by even less, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One important reason flu shots don't usually work very well is because they're grown in chicken eggs, a slow and tricky process that can go wrong easily, researchers told NBC News.

"We need to get away from the antiquated production model, which the egg is," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He thinks that vaccines made using insect cells could be better at protecting people from the flu.

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