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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
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday March 09 2018, @06:35PM
The thing is, when you don't know what the key will look like, you don't know how to properly look for it. It can get a bit discouraging. But if some crucial discovery is made it's likely to become obvious that it's been right in front of you all along.
Well, of course that's a wildly oversimplified metaphor, but they're looking at various portions of the structure of the flu, and trying to find a piece that is invariant, and that can simulate the immune system to attack it, and which can be detected by the immune system. Right now they don't know what part that is, or how to properly stimulate the immune system. But once some crucial discovery is made it will become clear what the next steps should be. And nobody can really predict what that "some crucial discovery" is. So people who want to plan things out in detail get very pessimistic...and maybe they're right, but often they aren't. And, of course, it could just be impossible, but I see no reason to believe that.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.