A preliminary study released Thursday said this season’s flu vaccine had little to no effect protecting people against influenza.

The study, published by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that of 1,000 people who received the vaccine before Nov. 1, 14.9 percent eventually developed flu-like symptoms. Of 402 people who did not get the vaccine before Nov. 1, 16.9 percent eventually became ill.

Colin McKay, freshman in pre-business, said he received the vaccine but it proved to be ineffective.

“I figured that I wouldn’t get sick [after taking the flu shot], but later I found out that the shot may not make any difference since it didn’t include the strain,” McKay said.

McKay said he received the flu shot before the frenzy surrounding the flu outbreak materialized. Even though McKay received the flu shot, he said he has gotten an illness that may be the flu.

“I have a sore throat, loss of appetite, I’m congested and I have nausea,” McKay said.

He said he doesn’t regret getting the flu shot, because he knows of many others who got the shot and remained free of the flu.

McKay said he got somewhat upset about the frenzy stirred up about the scarcity of flu vaccines, because it gave pharmaceutical companies money they might not have deserved.

Marc Shulman, staff physician at the Thielen Student Health Center, said there are two Type A flu strains prevalent in the United States and five Type B flu strains. The flu vaccine administered this flu season only covered two Type A strains and one Type B strain.

Shulman said there is not a vaccine that could protect against every single flu strain, because strains often mutate themselves to create new forms of the flu. He said this failure to protect from the prevalent strains happens from time to time.

“Scientists look at the trends and patterns around the world, and this takes months to see what is happening, and sometimes we don’t predict it right,” Shulman said. “But [the vaccine] isn’t 100 percent ineffective either.”

Shulman said the flu vaccine administered this year worked against some flu strains, giving people effective protection against those strains.

Thielen provided both the traditional flu shot and the FluMist, a drop administered nasally, to students during the flu outbreak, but the differences between the two are slight, he said.

“Both cause the body to create antibodies, but the shot and the mist are absorbed into the body differently, so it is up to the individual whether or not they prefer the shot or the mist,” Shulman said.

“Also, there are many people who can not take the FluMist. Those who are in an immunocompromised state and those who are over 49 years of age can not get the mist.”