{"id":11603,"date":"2026-03-04T20:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11603"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:06:48","slug":"universal-flu-vaccine-how-scientists-are-closing-in-on-the-viruss-weak-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/03\/04\/universal-flu-vaccine-how-scientists-are-closing-in-on-the-viruss-weak-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal flu vaccine: How scientists\u00a0are closing in on the virus&#8217;s &#8216;weak spots&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20260227-why-is-there-no-universal-flu-vaccine\">BBC<\/a> <strong>While current flu shots need to be updated each season, scientists are finding new ways to make vaccine that could last much longer and cover more strains.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each year,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"roughly a billion people around the world catch the flu, opens in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/influenza-(seasonal)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">roughly a billion people around the world catch the flu<\/a>. You&#8217;ll know if you&#8217;ve got it \u2013 it can knock you out for a week or more with a fever, fatigue, headaches and a cough. It leaves millions of people each year unable to work and sadly claims the lives of between&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"290,000-650,000 people in a typical year, opens in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/influenza-(seasonal)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">290,000-650,000 people in a typical year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a miserable disease \u2013 and, unfortunately, there&#8217;s no guarantee that if you catch it one year, you go through the same ordeal the following year. Influenza is a wily virus, constantly shapeshifting to get around humans&#8217; immune defences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why you have to get a flu shot every year,&#8221; says Nicholas Heaton, a professor at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, US. Seasonal flu vaccines prevent many deaths and serious illnesses each year, but they are imperfect. Their effectiveness typically\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-393X\/10\/5\/714\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"tops out around 60%, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tops out around 60%<\/a>\u00a0and can dip well below that in years\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/63\/12\/1564\/2282808\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"when the vaccine's formula isn't a good match, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">when the vaccine&#8217;s formula isn&#8217;t a good match<\/a>\u00a0for the virus that is actually spreading among humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20260227-why-is-there-no-universal-flu-vaccine\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC While current flu shots need to be updated each season, scientists are finding new ways to make vaccine that could last much longer and cover more strains. Each year,&nbsp;roughly a billion people around the world catch the flu. You&#8217;ll know if you&#8217;ve got it \u2013 it can knock you out for a week or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vaccine-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11604,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions\/11604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}