universal vaccine

I explained that while we’ve been trying to create a universal flu vaccine for years without success, similar efforts are ongoing for COVID-19.

We have learned a lot about the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the four years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the virus replicates its RNA and mutates in every infection, its spike proteins keep changing.

I described two approaches: (1) combining surface proteins from different coronaviruses on a scaffold, and (2)  focusing on conserved regions of the virus that tend not to mutate.

Flu and COVID-19 are examples of respiratory diseases that require repeated vaccine boosters to prevent illness.