Since we have learned that Covid can cause long-term effects that impact us long after the actual infection is over, are there any similar/comparable effects known with the influenza virus?

What things can one start doing in their daily lives to limit the chances of contracting the flu?

On the same note, does flu serve any positive purpose?

Many years ago there was a 60 Minutes type programme discussing how the flu vaccine is made. The gist of it was there are many, many flus at any given time on the earth and trying to pick which one(s) were going to come to your area of earth was, basically, a guessing game. This is why, during some years, the flu vaccine was ineffective because the ‘wrong’ flu was picked. Is this still an issue or has our ability to track and predict flu patterns better thereby making the flu vaccine more accurate?

My understanding is that each flu season a forecast is made about the strains most likely to be prevalent, and the vaccine is formulated based on this forecast. Is this done exactly once per season, or is the vaccine "updated" if the initial forecast turns out to be inaccurate?

I feel as if we're always hearing about an "All in One Vaccine" for the flu that will no longer require tweaking based on the prevelant strains that year. Those articles are a dime a dozen especially since the emergence of Covid.

Is there every any truth in those?

Do you think we'll ever reach a point in medical science where that could be achieved?

What is the difference between Flu and Common Cold?

Would continuing to wear mask nd take covid type precautions help us overall by reducing the spread of the disease easily or would it be detrimental in anyway that I can't think off.

With resent breakthroughs with vaccines. Could we see some sort of shift in them? Like if the vaccine is for one type but another proves come out in the population more. Could a new vaccine be developed fast enough to help curb the outbreak??

How much more dangerous is flu for kids than covid? What about young adults? Where is the inflection point in age where covid becomes more dangerous? What about when vaccination is factored in (I.e. difference in danger from covid for a vaccinated 65 year old vs. Flu for that same person)?

Is it true the common flu is variations of the Spanish flu that just never went away but we built up some immunity to it and the same will happen with covid?

So I had compiled a list over the years of roughly 30+ news articles about an influenza epidemic where hospitals were being overrun and patients needing to be outside in tents etc. dating back to 2009.

Why wasn't there a global push for influenza shots on a level such as COVID?

How has COVID changed the way we deal with flu?

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As I understand the flu can cause inflammation of the heart, so does the vaccine also cause the same inflammation?

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Why did the flu disappear in 2021? Is there any other instance we know of that one virus was almost completely replaced by the other virus?

I've heard that one of the major strains of influenza went extinct due to anti-Covid measures- are there other examples of strains going extinct in the past?

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Can you contract flu if you get really cold or wash your hair and go out withoug drying it first :)

Is it possible to develop a paninfluenza vaccine?

Also, do we need a new flu shot every year because there are new strains going around or because of waning or both?

Are samples of all influenza variants stored for medical research?

Has SARS-COV-2 research informed the transmissible via surfaces for the flu?

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Why are flu vaccines only quadrivalent, and not, say, octavalent or more?

Is it possible to make a flu test, similar to a COVID-19 test?

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What is the status on progress for a universal influenza vaccine?

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With so much flu and covid around, is there an easy way to tell the difference? My friends are claiming they "just have the flu" but I'd like to know for sure.

When I was in primary school, my perfectly healthy friend lost his eyesight almost completely over a week or so. He does see vague shapes but is legally blind. Back then, the adults told me that it was due to flu complications. Is this actually possible? If so, what would be the mechanism?

Where does Influenza "go" in between flu seasons? Is it just slowly working its way around the planet and just takes about a year to make the journey? or does it basically go infect something else until conditions are ideal for us to get infected again? Or is it there the whole time usually and we are just more prone to getting it at certain times of the year?

Why is the flu prevelant in 'western ' countries, but essentially non-existent in places like India and Afrixa?

Whats the ratio of asymptomatic vs mild symptoms vs severe symptoms for influenza infections? (I often hear things like "if its not severe then you dont have the real flu but just a common cold", is this true?)

Is it possible to get an influenza infection from asymptomatic virus carriers, similar to COVID? Do you have any numbers?

I just had Covid and flu A at the same time. I still feel weak but what’s more bothersome is this persistent nausea. It was mild at the beginning of the illness. Now that I’m a week out from the end of quarantine the nausea is worse. I’m wondering if the nausea is possibly related.

Can you discuss the nature and prevalence of post-viral immune responses, their severity, and what to look out for, how to treat, and when to see a doctor. (meaning normal flu has run its course, and 7-10 days after fully recovering, having an exaggerated immune reaction)

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I've read about a possible universal flu vaccine using mRNA. Is this in the works?

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What advances in flu vaccination do you think are on the near and long-term horizon? Do you think we’ll get an mRNA flu vaccine any time soon?

I was really wondering why so many aspects about Corona seemed to be unknown, for example regarding seasonal effects of infections, importance of aerosols for spreading etc. - why didn't virologists worldwide didn't at least start from what was known about influenza?

Thanks for doing this! Is there any evidence to support cumulative benefits of receiving an annual flu shot? For example, if I get the flu shot five years in a row, does my immune system naturally build up a greater defense against the flu virus?

Not as long term but there is an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes in the weeks after influenza. The body generates an immune response which can result in widespread inflammation that may be involved in this process.

How is the development of flu vaccines administered via others ways (nasal spray, droplet) going? Is there a significant difference in vaccine technology used (eg: deactivated virus, egg protein) between them and the normal vaccine?

Symptom wise, the flu tends to give a higher temperature (greater than 38 C or 100.4 F.). Colds usually start with a sore throat and have more nasal symptoms, head ache is common and there may be a cough. Flu has more muscle aches, non productive cough and that higher temperature. Since some of the symptoms overlap, there may be confusion in determining what a person has.

Besides getting a flu shot, wash, wash and wash the hands. I wear a mask in enclosed spaces (I am older and at higher risk for a "Bad" outcome). Since you can spread the virus before you have symptoms, I don't want to feel responsible for getting family or friends sick. Especially since I have family with health issues.

Interesting question: The viruses are in those areas. When individuals are tested for the antibodies, levels are found in many children. Public health resources are not as available and testing/reporting limited. It simply isn't as reported. Also, malaria is prevalent in many areas and symptoms may be attributed to that wide spread (Africa) disease. I would also guess that better climate leads to less time in enclosed spaces and less opportunity for virus to spread.

Does influenza affect harder to men? and if it does, is this some normal in diseases?

The exact composition of seasonal influenza vaccines is decided semiannually (for vaccines prepared for use during flu season in the northern hemisphere, and then again for use in the southern hemisphere, because their flu seasons happen at different times). Once that decision is made (in collaboration by the WHO and various national authorities), it is very difficult to ‘update’ the vaccine composition due to tight manufacturing deadlines associated with producing sufficient quantities of inactivated vaccine for widespread use. This is why influenza virus surveillance year-round, world-wide, is so important: it gives the subject matter experts who make decisions about choosing specific candidate vaccine viruses the most information possible to make evidence-based decisions regarding vaccine composition that will be a close a match to circulating viruses during flu seasons as possible.

Now that the American Heart Association recommends, since early this year, low-carbing and very-low carbing (aka Keto diets), and a Yale study in 2019 found keto diets significantly aided mice when infected by flu, do you think the covid-keto related studies should be restarted since the Yale study results appear to generalise to other lung-related viral infections (eg, mucous effect inhibiting viral ingress, and immuno boost)?

This is in the context of Keto diets being smeared as "No, keto diets won't stop you getting covid" and effectively ignored as a possible treatment, while studies that were proposed never happen. As far as I know there were no keto-covid studies in the end.

https://news.yale.edu/2019/11/15/ketogenic-diet-helps-tame-flu-virus

Influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and Influenza B (Yamagata and Victoria lineages) have circulated in humans for many years; a paucity of official reports of Influenza B Yamagata lineage virus infection in humans since 2020 supports that this lineage is not currently circulating at a high level among humans (you can read more about how these different viruses vary at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm ). Influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 both spread primarily by the respiratory route, and so many nonpharmaceutical measures taken to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (like wearing masks, increased social distancing, etc) also led to reduced circulation of influenza viruses during the pandemic (see more https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34292924/ ).

Back in 1945, the push for the flu vaccine was similar to what we are seeing with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine today. In 1918, the world was hit with a massive influenza pandemic that killed more than 20 million people world wide. By 1945, we had an influenza (H1N1) vaccine available for the general public. Unfortunately, the flu is a rapidly mutating virus, meaning that we see various strains dominating each year and some can turn into pandemics. All we can do is try to predict which strains will be prevalent and vaccinate against those in a yearly vaccine. In short, the answer to your question is that there has been a global push for influenza vaccination in the past, put there isn't currently a push on the level of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination because we haven't seen a flu pandemic on the level with COVID-19 since 1918.

Thank you! So I guess they have bigger fish to fry with regards to diseases?

RNA-based influenza vaccines offer several advantages over current inactivated influenza vaccines (such as reduced production times, elimination of egg- and cell-based propagation steps, and the potential for rapid updating in the event of antigenic drift). There are numerous different mRNA-based influenza vaccines in development, with phase 1 clinical trials reported for some (such as https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31079849/ ). More information on recent flu vaccine advancements is available here: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm

In order to know how prevalent different influenza viruses are in different locations, we need to conduct surveillance, and how much active surveillance of influenza viruses is taking place can vary greatly between different locations (as an example, this MMWR report discussed differences in influenza activity worldwide during 2018: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30359347/ ). The WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) aggregates data from different influenza virus surveillance systems worldwide to better understand which viruses are circulating where and to what degree (more info of CDC’s role in GISRS is: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/who-collaboration.htm ). Thinking about a continent like Africa, there is still circulation of influenza viruses, but seasonality can vary depending where you look (described more in this 2022 research paper: https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-022-07727-2 ).

The flu can be spread by individual who have virus but haven't developed symptoms yet. The big difference in symptoms for the flu and the "common" cold is running a higher fever. Colds tend to have fevers that are less than 100.4F while the flu generally goes higher. Colds usually start with a sore throat and then develop nasal symptoms. Individuals with the flu tend to have moderate to severe fatigue. Since there can be overlap of symptoms between the illnesses and can vary from person to person, it can be confusing. The most common difference is usually that higher temperature in the flu.

You cannot tell the difference between flu and COVID-19 by symptoms alone because some of the symptoms are the same. Some tests can differentiate between flu and COVID-19 at the same time. If one of these tests is not available, many testing locations (https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/community-based-testing-sites/index.html) provide flu and COVID-19 tests separately. Talk to a healthcare provider about getting tested for both flu and COVID-19 if you have symptoms. Learn more: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm

With few exceptions, influenza vaccines are recommended for everyone 6 months and older (see https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccinations.htm ). However, vaccination rates vary between countries, and can vary at country level between different age groups and risk groups. For example, less resourced countries may have limited vaccine available; even when vaccine is available, there are several factors which can contribute to low vaccination use (summarized here: https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/fact-sheets/item/influenza-vaccination-coverage-and-effectiveness ).

Why don’t we just create a shot with with all the H’s and N’s in it rather than creating different shots each year?

Influenza (flu) and the common cold are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. Flu is caused by influenza viruses only, whereas the common cold can be caused by a number of different viruses, including rhinoviruses, parainfluenza, and seasonal coronaviruses (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/general-information.html). Seasonal coronaviruses should not be confused with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html).

Because flu and the common cold have similar symptoms, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. In general, flu is worse than the common cold, and symptoms are typically more intense and begin more abruptly. Colds are usually milder than flu. People with colds are more likely to have a runny or stuffy nose than people who have flu. Colds generally do not result in serious health problems, such as pneumonia, bacterial infections, or hospitalizations. Flu can have serious associated complications (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/symptoms.htm). There are multiple respiratory viruses in circulation right now (https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/t1104-update-respiratory-disease-circulation.html), so, your doctor may test you to determine which treatment is right for you. If you do get sick with flu, prescription flu antivirals can help treat your illness, and can make your illness milder and shorten the time you are sick.

The best way to protect yourself from is to get an annual flu vaccine. There are also everyday preventive actions (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/prevention.htm) you can take, like avoiding people who are sick, staying home when you are sick, covering your coughs and sneezes, and washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water. You can also consider wearing a well-fitting mask which may help reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. This might be especially useful in certain circumstances, for example, in household settings when someone is sick or in crowded community settings for people at higher risk when respiratory disease activity is high.

Unfortunately, as we are seeing this year, the flu did not disappear. The measures taken to prevent COVID-19, such as masking, hand washing and social distancing, are also great ways to prevent influenza. Additionally, during the 2020-2021 flu season, arecord number of influenza vaccines were distributed. Throughout history, it is common to see a decrease in a disease with the rise of another disease. Historiansrefer to these as disease cycles and they have had major impacts on human history.

Due to a process called ‘antigenic drift’, influenza viruses are constantly changing as they circulate within a population (read more at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/change.htm ). The standard inactivated influenza vaccine includes multiple different subtypes of virus (from H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B viruses) and each component can change in this manner. And yes, due to manufacturing timelines, the decision of which specific virus to include in the vaccine takes place months before you actually receive the vaccine in a clinic (see Figure 1 in this publication for an example of the timeline: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12383 ). There are intense efforts underway trying to move towards ‘universal’ influenza vaccines (in other words, targeting parts of the influenza virus in the vaccine that are not subjected to antigenic drift), though this approach represents a challenging undertaking for several reasons (summarized in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028071/ ).

Development of universal vaccines represents an area of ongoing, active research (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028071/ ). The goal of these vaccine approaches is to both expand the protective scope (e.g. protecting against a broader range of influenza viruses) and extend the protective duration (e.g. not needing an updated vaccination every flu season). One of the primary reasons a new flu shot is formulated every influenza season is that influenza viruses circulating in humans are constantly changing (termed ‘antigenic drift’ (read more at: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/change.htm ). Because our current inactivated influenza vaccines are targeted against parts of the virus that are most prone to change over time, yearly vaccination with updated flu shots ensures that you can develop protective immune responses against the most currently circulating strains possible.

At this time, CDC is participating in a broad inter-agency partnership coordinated by BARDA (https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/nivms/Pages/default.aspx) that supports the advanced development of new and better flu vaccines. These efforts already have yielded important successes (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm#vaccine-advances). Part of this effort is the eventual development of a “universal vaccine” that would offer better, broader and longer-lasting protection against seasonal influenza viruses as well as novel influenza viruses. This task poses an enormous scientific and programmatic challenge, but a number of government agencies and private companies already have begun work to advance development of a universal flu vaccine.

Influenza is a tricky virus to vaccinate against because it rapidly mutates and has multiple strains circulating in one year. Our ability to predict these strains is improving, but it is still a prediction. We are improving the number of strains we can vaccinate against. The first influenza vaccine only vaccinated against H1N1, where as this years influenza vaccine protects against 4 strains.

Of course there's no way to know for certain, but what do you think are the odds that COVID vaccines end up in a similar state (annual / seasonal vaccines that are the best guess at which variants will be most impactful)?

The first and best way to protect yourself and your family from flu is to get an annual flu vaccine (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccinations.htm). There are also everyday preventive actions you can take, like avoiding people who are sick, staying home when you are sick, covering your coughs and sneezes, and washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/prevention.htm). You can also consider wearing a well-fitting mask which may help reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Finally, it’s important to know that if you do get sick with flu, there are prescription antiviral drugs (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/treatment/treatment.htm) that can be used to treat your flu illness. Treatment works best if started within 2 days of illness onset. However, starting them later can still be helpful, especially if the sick person has a higher-risk health condition or is very sick from flu (for example, hospitalized patients). Follow your doctor’s instructions for taking these drugs.

Wearing a mask in enclosed, public spaces and hand washing are helpful in slowing and preventing the spread of colds and flu. To protect myself and my loved ones, I got my flu shot, wear a mask in markets, etc. and am washing my hands more frequently. Just putting the odds more in my favor.

RNA-based influenza vaccines offer several advantages over current inactivated influenza vaccines (such as reduced production times, elimination of egg- and cell-based propagation steps, and the potential for rapid updating in the event of antigenic drift). There are numerous different mRNA-based influenza vaccines in development, with phase 1 clinical trials reported for some (such as https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31079849/ ). More information on recent flu vaccine advancements is available here: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm

In response to your second question, I do not know of any positive purpose the influenza virus serves on an individual person basis. Historically, the 1918 influenza pandemic may have helped bring WWI to a close, at the cost of many lives. The flu hit the front lines across Europe in the first wave of infection. Influenza weakened and cut the numbers of fighting forces, leading to a need for more diplomatic tactics. I am not sure this is exactly a positive outcome because millions of people died from complications related to the flu, but it did help end a global war.

>piercet_3dPrint · 3 hr. ago
>
>Where does Influenza "go" in between flu seasons? Is it just slowly working its way around the planet and just takes about a year to make the journey? or does it basically go infect something else until conditions are ideal for us to get infected again? Or is it there the whole time usually and we are just more prone to getting it at certain times of the year?

Influenza is always circulating among humans, just in different locations at different times. For example, the flu season in the US is primarily between Oct-May, whereas in Australia, the flu season is primarily during their winter months. There are other geographic locations where there are multiple ‘seasons’ during a year (for example, in Africa: https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-022-07727-2 ). There are lots of different factors which contribute to seasonality of respiratory viruses, such as influenza, some of which are discussed here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2656132/ .

At this time, CDC is participating in a broad inter-agency partnership coordinated by BARDA (https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/nivms/Pages/default.aspx ) that supports the advanced development of new and better flu vaccines. These efforts already have yielded important successes (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm#vaccine-advances ). Part of this effort is the eventual development of a “universal vaccine” that would offer better, broader and longer-lasting protection against seasonal influenza viruses as well as novel influenza viruses. This task poses an enormous scientific and programmatic challenge, but a number of government agencies and private companies already have begun work to advance development of a universal flu vaccine.

>Letspostsomething · 9 min. ago
>
>Why don’t we just create a shot with with all the H’s and N’s in it rather than creating different shots each year?

There are many different types of universal vaccine approaches under development; many of them target conserved parts of the virus (in other words, part of the virus that stay the same for long periods of time, and are consistent between different HA and NA subtypes). Many of these approaches are reviewed here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028071/ By targeting parts of the virus that do not change (unlike the current inactivated influenza vaccines, which target parts of the virus that do a good job stimulating immune responses but are more likely to change from year to year), universal vaccines hope to have broader efficacy against different virus subtypes.

The influenza vaccine is a trade off, like many things in our life. Scientists try to predict the strains that most people will be exposed to during the flu season and put those into the vaccine. For each strain added, we increase the cost of production and more importantly, each strain increases the load on your immune system. More strains might result in multiple shots needed, which decreases the number of people who get fully vaccinated. Or it could cause side effects, similar to what we have seen with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which will decrease the number of people who get the yearly vaccine. Luckily, scientists are working on a universal influenza vaccine. This type of vaccine would vaccinate against a protein on the influenza virus that doesn't change. This would mean protection from more strains, as well as less frequent vaccination.

>scheisskopf53 · 3 hr. ago
>
>When I was in primary school, my perfectly healthy friend lost his eyesight almost completely over a week or so. He does see vague shapes but is legally blind. Back then, the adults told me that it was due to flu complications. Is this actually possible? If so, what would be the mechanism?

I am not a medical doctor and cannot speak to your friend’s situation. On the larger question of how influenza virus infection may interact with the eyes, this is an area I study frequently in the laboratory. Some influenza viruses are able to replicate specifically within ocular tissue (because the same types of receptors that influenza viruses bind to in the respiratory tract are also present on the human ocular surface) and influenza viruses can use the eye as a portal of entry to establish a respiratory infection (because the lacrimal duct bridges ocular and respiratory tissues). You can read more about documented cases of ocular complications following influenza virus infection and how we study this in the laboratory here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29477464/ .

The 1918 influenza is called the H1N1 strain and it is still around today. The flu differs from COVID-19 in one big way. Influenza virus mutates very quickly, which is why we need a new vaccine yearly that covers for different strains. Luckily with Influenza, you can get some protection against similar strains because the mutations are usually small changes. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand does mutate, but not as rapidly. We don't yet know how our immune systems are going to respond to different strains of SARS-CoV-2. There is some evidence that previous infection with omicron can protect against other variants, but this is still under investigation.

The quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine is targeted against currently circulating H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses, and Yamagata and Victoria lineage influenza B viruses (4 circulating types of virus = 4 components of the vaccine). Universal vaccine approaches (as we’ve mentioned in responses to other questions in this session) are hoping to expand vaccine breadth not by including more individual HA targets, but by targeting conserved parts of the virus that are consistent across a wide range of virus subtypes.

More information on recent flu vaccine advancements is available here: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm . The goal is always to minimize the amount of time it takes from identifying a novel strain circulating among humans, to having a safe and effective vaccine against that virus. One of the ways we try to achieve this is preparing candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) against zoonotic influenza viruses that are considered to have pandemic potential (the process is described at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/candidate-vaccine-virus.htm ). CDC and other agencies have prepared a wide range of CVV’s that could rapidly be employed for manufacturing vaccine for human use if needed.

Encourage them to do a home Covid test. Get a result in 15 minutes. Of course, the PCR test is more accurate but that is not as easy to do. The diseases have symptoms that can overlap so it is dependent on the person's presentation. There are many online symptom charts comparing Covid, Flu and Cold symptoms.

The current influenza vaccines vaccinate against the active binding sight (head) of the hemagglutinin. This is on of the the spots that mutates every year. The universal influenza vaccine vaccinates against the stalk of the hemagglutinin. This portion of the virus does not rapidly change. There are a number of universal vaccines in clinical trials. These clinical trials ensure the vaccine is effective and safe before it reaches the market. If the vaccines that are currently in clinical trials meet the high standards, we might see a universal flu vaccine in the near future.

>Spidersandbeavers · 7 hr. ago
>
>How much more dangerous is flu for kids than covid? What about young adults? Where is the inflection point in age where covid becomes more dangerous? What about when vaccination is factored in (I.e. difference in danger from covid for a vaccinated 65 year old vs. Flu for that same person)?

Influenza can be a dangerous infection for any person at any age. However, there are some populations (based on age, vaccination status, and/or underlying health conditions) for which increased likelihood of increased disease severity is possible (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/index.htm). This is why annual flu vaccination is suggested for everyone six months of age or older with few exceptions (see https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccinations.htm ).

>It's totally possible! Scientists have been working on this for years and have some promising candidates being tested in humans right now. Below is some more information that I compiled for another question and here is a good article on one of the universal flu vaccines.
>
>
>
>The current influenza vaccines vaccinate against the active binding sight (head) of the hemagglutinin. This is on of the the spots that mutates every year. The
>
>universal influenza vaccine vaccinates against the stalk of the hemagglutinin. This portion of the virus does not rapidly change. There are a number of universal vaccines in clinical trials. These clinical trials ensure the vaccine is effective and safe before it reaches the market. If the vaccines that are currently in clinical trials meet the high standards, we might see a universal flu vaccine in the near future.

>Average_Cat_Lover · 2 hr. ago
>
>How is the development of flu vaccines administered via others ways (nasal spray, droplet) going? Is there a significant difference in vaccine technology used (eg: deactivated virus, egg protein) between them and the normal vaccine?

There are several types of FDA-approved influenza virus vaccines in the US (summarized at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/different-flu-vaccines.htm ). Advances in influenza virus vaccine technology are ongoing (summarized at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/advances.htm#vaccine-advances ). Different vaccine formulations have different properties (e.g. egg protein vs egg-free, inactivated vs live-attenuated, etc). While the unadjuvanted, inactivated, intramuscularly-administered influenza vaccine is most common, there are a range of FDA-approved influenza virus vaccines against seasonal influenza viruses.

Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, can be caused by a number of viruses. When an infection is identified in the body, the immune system triggers an inflammatory response. Similar to a fire alarm, it is a signal to the body that something is wrong. This can be dangerous when it occurs in the heart because it prevents blood from being pumped. The influenza vaccine, however is not delivered to the heart. The immune inflammatory alarm will be triggered either in the muscle or nose where the vaccine is delivered. Swelling at the injection site is a common side effect, but inflammation of the heart is not. The Mayo Clinic promotes vaccination for those with heart conditions, because if you have a heart condition, you are at increased risk of myocarditis following an influenza infection.

I work in a laboratory at CDC where I need to take showers and wash my hair every time I leave the lab (BSL3 with risk-based enhancements, you can read more about it at https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/infographics/biosafety.htm ), which means I walk around a lot with wet hair, so I have thought about this question too. 😊 Because flu is caused by a respiratory virus (and not wet hair!), the most important thing I do to protect myself from influenza by getting a flu vaccine every year.

We already have influenza tests! If you go to a doctors office presenting with Flu-like symptoms, they will likely run a test for influenza. The rapid tests, most commonly found in urgent cares, take about 10-15min and are 90-95% accurate. There is also an RT-PCR test that is very sensitive in detecting viral RNA, but takes more time. There are also Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests that are antigen based. These can be done at home, similar to the COVID-19 home test, but their accuracy is lower (50-70% accuracy).

There are many mutations of the virus and the one that you get may not be the same one that is covered by the vaccine for that year. However, there is some evidence that even if it is not an exact match, people who are vaccinated are better able to fight it and have milder symptoms.

We have known for a while that influenza can transmit via surfaces. We call this fomite transmission. For example, if a person sneezes or coughs onto a desk and then another person touches the desk then rubs their eyes, it is possible to get the flu. This risk is fairly low (4.2% of infections in a 2018 study), but the risk is believed to be even lower for SARS-CoV-2.

Thanks for your time. I do appreciate this thread and the answers.

There is still a lot unknown about SARS-CoV-2 because it is a new virus. The flu and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, but they are caused by very different viruses, meaning our immune systems respond differently. We cannot use the flu as a model for things like seasonal effects, because we have seen that COVID-19 is not as strongly linked with seasons as the Flu is. We also know that they both spread through liquid droplets, but influenza is able to spread surface to surface better than SARS-CoV-2. I wish we could use Influenza as a model for SARS-CoV-2 because it would have let us get a grasp on the disease much faster, but unfortunately they are totally different viruses and act differently.

Since we know regions that are conserved and people can create antibodies to these regions, what challenges are preventing universal flu vaccines?

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Thank you for your time in answering questions! I was wondering what percentage match the flu shot is for the flu in America this year please?

Edit: if you are aware of other countries I’d be interested in that too. I’d like to see if there are different varieties in different areas.

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I had a nasty cold this summer and a doctor suggested to me that I could have the flu because covid lockdowns had changed the annual flu season. Are you expecting the flu to be a seasonal illness going forward? Has there been a significant increase in flu cases in the summer?

Is the flu shot from one year to the next always different or sometimes the same strains as the previous year? If it contains the same strains as the previous year then would a person still need to get the flu shot again if they got the shot the previous year with the same strains?

What was the deciding factor with the determinations of calculating which cold/flu/covid infection people had? Why did cold/flu drop so significantly?

Why is influenza and the cold so persistent with rates beginning to redevelop and the covid-19 seemingly disappearing?

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I once read that the flu has been called the captain of the killers of men. Any chance you could talk about suspected major outbreaks before 1918?

Can I get influenza A again?

I found an open data set that includes around 29544 DNA sequences of the influenza virus. Each sequence looks something like the following:

>gi|60698|gb|X58690|Influenza A virus (A/FPV/Rostock/34(H71)) gene for cap-binding protein PB2, genomic RA [Seq Num 23]
>
>GAGAGAGTGG TCGTGAGTAT TGACCGTTTC TTAAGAGTTC GAGATCAGCG
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>TGGAAATGTA ATCCTGTCTC CTGAAGAGGT TAGCGAAACG CAGGGAACAG

Where the top portion is a header for each sequence. What is the header describing exactly?

Why are GC and AT base pairs so important?

Lastly, how can we apply the knowledge of knowing the DNA sequence of so many influenza viruses to enhance medical intervention?

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Do flu scientists specialize in certain types of flu? Like are there covid specialists and bird flu specialists, or do they study all types cause they are all the same?

How quickly can you manufacture a new vaccine with modern techniques right now? And how does today's process compare to the one 10 years ago? What I mean by a new vaccine is just a single shot against a unique strain of influenza in the lab. Thanks!

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