The Shot Heard ‘Round the Doctor’s Office

If you’re among those who trust the flu vaccine to get you through another flu season relatively unscathed — roll up your sleeve.

“We could find no evidence [the spray] was effective,” said one flu expert.

The mist most likely won’t be an option this next flu season.

A panel of experts decided on Wednesday that the FluMist has been largely ineffective in children in recent years and should not be used in the United States during the 2016-17 flu season.

“We could find no evidence [the spray] was effective,” Dr. Joseph Breese, a flu expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press.

The traditional flu shot is effective, however, and recommended for everyone aged six months and older, the panel concluded.

The federal government relies on advisories from the CDC’s Advisory Panel on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and then issues guidance to the nation’s doctors.

The nasal spray vaccine, made from a weakened form of the influenza virus, was first licensed in 2003. Early studies showed it outperformed the traditional flu shot in protecting kids, but that changed in recent years. Between 2013 and 2016, the ACIP found virtually no protection against the flu in children ages 2 to 17.

This past flu season, in fact, the nasal flu vaccine’s protection rate was only 3 percent, the panel reported. That means little to no protective benefit could be measured.

The traditional flu shot, on the other hand, was said to be 63 percent effective among children ages 2 to 17 during the 2015-16 flu season.

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No one seems sure as to why the mist has lost its effectiveness, but Breese told the AP that when a fourth strain of influenza was added to the vaccine a few years ago, that may have weakened the body’s response to another strain.

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement in support of the panel’s move.

“We do understand this change will be difficult for pediatric practices who were planning to give the intranasal spray to their patients, and to patients who prefer that route of administration,” said Dr. Karen Remley, CEO and executive director of the AAP.

“However, the science is compelling that the inactivated [needle-based] vaccine is the best way to protect children from what can be an unpredictable and dangerous virus.”

The AAP will be working with the CDC and vaccine manufacturers in the coming months to ensure there is enough of the traditional flu vaccine to meet demand for the upcoming flu season.