About the Authors

Stephen J. Brett

stephen.brett@imperial.ac.uk

Affiliation Centre for Peri-operative Medicine and Critical Care Research, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Puja Myles

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Wei Shen Lim

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Joanne E. Enstone

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Barbara Bannister

Affiliation Department of Health, Skipton House, London, United Kingdom

Malcolm G. Semple

Affiliation Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Robert C. Read

Affiliation Department of Infection and Immunity, University of Sheffield, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Bruce L. Taylor

Affiliation Department of Critical Care, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Jim McMenamin

Affiliation Health Protection Scotland, NHS National Services, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Karl G. Nicholson

Affiliation Infectious Diseases Unit, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, United Kingdom

Jonathan S. Nguyen-Van-Tam

Affiliation Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Peter J. M. Openshaw

Affiliation Centre for Respiratory Infections, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

the Influenza Clinical Information Network (FLU-CIN)

Competing Interests

SJB has received consultancy fees from Pfizer. WSL has received an unrestricted educational grant from Wyeth (now Pfizer). KGN has received H5 avian influenza vaccines from Novartis and pH1N1 influenza vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter to facilitate MRC and NIHR-funded trials. He has received consultancy fees from Novartis and MSD. RCR is Chief Investigator of a vaccine trial funded by Novartis. JSN-V-T was one of several collaborators who jointly received an unrestricted educational top-up grant for previous statin-related research from Pfizer (in 2005), he also received consultancy fees in 2008 (for work unrelated to statins) from Novartis. PJMO is a member of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI), which is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS One policies on data sharing and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SJB PM WSL JEE BB MGS RCR BLT JM KGN JSN-V-T PJMO. Analyzed the data: SJB PM. Wrote the paper: SJB PM JSN-V-T PJMO.