Universal Flu Vaccine ‘Reasonable’ in 10 Years: Research Chief

A critical first step toward eliminating the need for an annual flu shot could make a universal vaccine available in the next decade, the head of the NIH’s influenza research programs said.

“Clearly we’re on the march,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in an April 4 interview. It’s tough to predict at this point how many strains of the influenza virus such a vaccine would cover.

“To say that in 10 years we’ll have some form of a universal flu vaccine, I think that’s ...