Scientists have just gotten closer to creating a universal flu vaccine

A new report reveals that scientists may have taken the first crucial steps toward developing a vaccine that will treat not specific strains of influenza, but all of them. The new study, which was first published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine on Monday, describes a universal flu vaccine candidate that could change the way we vaccinate ourselves against influenza. The theoretical vaccine takes advantage of the properties of the influenza virus, which, as the article explains, resembles a lollipop, with a head and a stalk. Current seasonal influenza virus vaccines contain three or four strains of influenza virus that cover the viruses circulating in the human population."