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An influenza pandemic, like the one of 1918 through 1920, could be even worse than the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty subtypes of influenza A and influenza B virus are known, and each subtype has multiple strains with different hemagglutinin (HA) antigens. Traditional vaccines require guessing which strains to target each year, and they require 6 months to produce — much too long to generate a vaccine for a sudden new pandemic.
Investigators at the University of Pennsylvania developed an mRNA vaccine that simultaneously immunized against all 20 subtypes of flu virus with one injection. In mice and ferrets, it produced robust antibody production against the specific HA antigens from each of the 20 flu subtypes. Unimmunized animals became ill and d…