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posted by martyb on Friday March 09 2018, @12:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the cough-cough-great-idea-cough-cough dept.

Despite push for a universal flu vaccine, the 'holy grail' stays out of reach

It is the holy grail of influenza science: a universal flu vaccine that could provide protection against virtually all strains instead of a select few. A burst of recent headlines have suggested that we might get one soon. Just last week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released a strategic plan for the development of a universal flu vaccine, prompting the White House science office to proclaim on Twitter that the goal is "closer than ever."

Experts, however, say we're really not there yet. And to be honest, we can't necessarily even see there from here. "I don't think we're that close at all," Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy. "I think the kind of work that's gone on has been critical and important, but it's only the first 5 feet of what would need to be a 100-foot rope."

There's no doubt that there is some momentum. The release of the strategic plan — which outlines for scientists the research that NIAID sees as critical and that it would be willing to help finance — signals renewed interest in the quest for a universal vaccine. So, too, does a bill — introduced by Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts — calling for $1 billion in government spending for the project.

Previously: Progress Reported on Universal Flu Vaccines

Related: Susceptibility to a Flu Determined by Your Very First Virus Encounter


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  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 09 2018, @02:55AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday March 09 2018, @02:55AM (#649825) Homepage

    Ahh, Lenny aka Jimbob, you're still alive. I almost forgot about your story. And I can't pander to this crowd unless I have some real-life inspiration. Unfortunately what you did was so heinous that I'm going to have to sit back and think whether or not these folks should hear it. Nobody was harmed, no property was damaged (though it was technically a property crime committed by you and not I), but what you did was so insidious in a harmless-but-niche manner that many nerds, even the Jews among them, would consider it worse than gassing Jews.

    In case all you nerds are kneading your dicks in anticipation, This is not about getting drunk and peeing on a Prius. This is not about physically hurting somebody, or damaging property, or hacking the NSA. I'm still going to have to recoil back on my haunches and figure out how much of that this crowd needs to hear.

    But since it's been built up so much now, the actual journal will be anticlimactic. Everybody who just read this, ignore it.

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