Thread by @WheatNOil

I’ve had a few questions to this end and it’s a good one.

The first thing to know is that “the flu” isn’t just one thing.

COVID-19 is a specific asshole. Like Steve your next door neighbour.

“Influenza” is a larger category of jerks.

https://twitter.com/stcampbell27/status/1342889372060946437

COVID-Steve has a particular weak spot. Without that protein, he’s not nearly as effective. That’s fortunate. It makes him easier to target. Steve also tends to be slower to change (or mutate).

Not every virus has a weak spot like that.

Influenza is a whole category of jerks with lots of different strains. They mutate quickly. They mix and match. They have different proteins on the outside. (That’s part of what the names of them mean: H1N1 refers to the names of the proteins on the virus, as an example).

Now that hasn’t stopped researchers from ‘trying’ to find a common target among all or most flu viruses. The mRNA technology may help with that. We’re not there yet.

Here we go, here’s where we’re at in terms of a “flu vaccine” that isn’t annual. Farther than I thought.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1336146914140712962

As the good doc describes here, while influenza is a large category of jerks, there’s some things that all jerks have in common. It’s been hard to target that. But it looks like we’re getting closer. Finding the Universal Jerk Target for Influenza.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1336146924370538496