universal vaccine for the flu and cold

[Lilymoon]

Do you think there is going to be universal vaccine for the flu and cold? The vaccines they have now don’t stop you from getting the flu and cold they only give you mild symptoms or keep you from getting so sick you get hospitalized.

Do you think there is going to be universal vaccine where you get the vaccine and you don’t get the flu and cold?

Also are there any updates on vaccines for food poisoning?

[wjfox]

Do you think there is going to be universal vaccine for the flu and cold? The vaccines they have now don’t stop you from getting the flu and cold they only give you mild symptoms or keep you from getting so sick you get hospitalized.

Do you think there is going to be universal vaccine where you get the vaccine and you don’t get the flu and cold?

Good news: there are now dozens of universal flu vaccines undergoing Phase 1-3 clinical trials:

https://ivr.cidrap.umn.edu/universal-in ... -landscape

So we might have a breakthrough in the next few years. One promising approach is targeting of the hemagglutinin stem, which mutates a lot more slowly compared to outer parts of the virus. Researchers are also developing mRNA platforms, similar to the Covid vaccines.

However, a universal cold vaccine is still largely theoretical, and probably many decades away, if it happens at all. There are hundreds of strains mutating all the time.

Also are there any updates on vaccines for food poisoning?

I don't think that's physically possible. Food poisoning isn't one disease. It's caused by many different bacteria and viruses. And bacteria release toxins, which vaccines can't prevent.

[Yuli Ban]

What wjfox said.

Chemically speaking, there's no such thing as a universal vaccine because there's so many rapidly mutating bacteria and viruses, and on top of that each person's body is different, so what might work on 50 people might not work on 1 specific person for reasons related to genetics or even trauma. Similar to how cancer is different in everyone because it's literally your own cells multiplying out of control.

That said, the closest alternative to such a thing would be nanotech-based medicine (since not even bacteria can evolve to defeat artificial entities that can be intelligently redesigned to adapt to whatever evolution they undergo or even anticipate said evolution if powered by a strong enough AI)

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03480-z