Scientists have been working on a universal flu vaccine for some time. Medicalnewstoday.com recently published an article highlighting a novel approach to designing vaccines. They discuss research published that looks to use a component of hemagglutinin, a protein from the surface of viruses. While the head of hemagglutinin varies significantly between viruses, the stalk component of this protein doesn’t appear to vary as much. Thus if our immunity is derived from this component of the virus, then hopefully our immunity will extend across multiple viruses. However these are interim results, so the annual flu shots are here to stay for now.
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