Credit: Unsplash

mRNA research from COVID vaccines has provided new insight.

On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination research has taken fresh leaps and bounds, accelerated by the pressing need of coronavirus vaccines. As medical researchers keep an eye on the coronavirus and its variants, they have also taken the opportunity to use what they’ve learned against other major diseases like the yearly flu. According to a new study, thanks to new discoveries on mRNA vaccines, we could be mere years away from a universal flu vaccine.

“I cannot emphasise enough what a breakthrough this paper is,” Prof John Oxford, a virologist at Queen Mary University in London, told BBC Radio 4. “The potential is huge, and I think sometimes we underestimate these big respiratory viruses.”

The experimental vaccine is still deep in testing stages, but if its efficacy could be proven, it could protect an individual from all possible strains of the influenza virus. Not only would this help to save millions of lives in the event of a flu outbreak or pandemic, but it would make manufacturing shots much easier, since they wouldn’t need to be tweaked every year.

Universal flu vaccine may be available within two years, says scientist https://t.co/8J3DPDXVMi

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) November 25, 2022

“This vaccine has only been tested in animals to date and it will be important to investigate its safety and efficacy in humans,” Dr. Andrew Freedman, a reader in infectious diseases at Cardiff University, told The Guardian. “It does seem a very promising approach to the goal of producing a universal flu vaccine as well as vaccines that protect against multiple members of other viral families such as rhino- and corona-viruses.”