Slashdot Mirror
Is a Universal Flu Vaccine On the Horizon?
sciencehabit writes: Two groups of researchers have created vaccines that may lead to a universal flu shot that could protect against every type of flu. Every year millions get a flu shot but with thousands of strains that mutate and evolve across seasons, no one shot can protect against them all. Sciencemag reports on the research: "When the teams vaccinated mice, both groups saw full protection against H5N1, a lethal influenza strain distantly related to H1N1. In both studies, mice that did not receive the stem-derived vaccine died, but vaccinated mice all survived. In further experiments, the nanoparticle-anchoring vaccine showed partial protection in ferrets, whereas the other vaccine showed partial protection in monkeys. Two of the six vaccinated ferrets fell ill and died, compared with a 100% mortality rate for the unvaccinated ferrets. None of the monkeys died, but those that were vaccinated had significantly lower fevers than their nonvaccinated companions."
Sure, having universal flu protection would be nice. But I don't know how I would feel about having THAT many autisms injected into me.
I know the Slashdot trope is that n is always too small in any study, regardless of the actual size of n.
That why I always work with "N" in my studies - it's much bigger than "n".
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Perhaps this story explains the problem with the B strains - and announces the solution?
I guess we'll never know, since it was posted to /. we're not allowed to read it before we comment.
Liberty.