Vox explains 'Why we need a better flu shot'

In the comments to 'SNL' opens with holiday greetings from Fauci and others, Liberty Felix linked to a video of Dr. Fauci discussing a universal flu vaccine. My response in the comments was "It's a good thing he was thinking like that. It made us better prepared for SARS-COV2, which isn't a flu." Vox uploaded Why we need a better flu shot yesterday, which allows me to give a better response that explains what a universal flu vaccine really is.

A universal flu vaccine is closer than you think.
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The flu vaccine is something many of us take for granted. Every year, starting in the early fall, “free flu shot available” signs start to line pharmacies and clinics – and yet in the US, only around half the population actually gets the vaccine. When talking about the flu, many equate it to a terrible cold, inconvenient at worst. But annual strains of influenza are estimated to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. The reality is, we’ve been living with influenza for so long that we often forget just how dangerous it can be.

The reason we need an annual vaccine for the flu is that it’s particularly prone to changing. That ability to mutate is also what makes it particularly good at causing pandemic-level threats. The last four global pandemics before Covid-19 were caused by an influenza virus. Experts warn that another one is inevitable and that our seasonal flu vaccine isn’t going to stop it.

For 80 years, the way we research and make our annual flu vaccine has remained the same. It’s a costly and timely process that involves predictions and chicken eggs. The result is a seasonal flu vaccine that’s certainly good enough, but we can do better. And now researchers are closer than ever to something new - something like a flu vaccine that remains effective year after year, regardless of the strain. Something that could stop an outbreak before it starts; something like a universal flu vaccine.

One of the episodes of the Netflix documentary series "Pandemic," which earned a nomination for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards is about the search for a universal flu vaccine. I don't recall it mentioning mRNA technology, but that would be a logical next step. It would be one way to avoid the problem I described in Skipping last flu season may be an example of 'there is no free lunch,' a pandemic update: "Suppressing last winter's flu season prevented a lot of suffering and death but it could come at a price of not being prepared for the next flu season." It's too late for this flu season, but here's to hoping a universal flu vaccine is available by the end of the decade.