Avoiding the Next Spanish Influenza

My neurotic Jewish mother calls me every year in August to remind me that I need to get a flu shot before they some-how run out. Soon, she won't have to bug me, as the US Department of Health and Human Services begins to pump more money into the pharmaceutical industry in order to produce more vaccines within the US and to innovate the shot, itself.

[Health and Human Services] is now focusing on a universal flu vaccine that could be given every five to 10 years, much like a tetanus shot, and protect against most types of flu, including seasonal varieties and the highly mutated kinds that cause pandemics.