On Jun. 23, 2020, scientists at Scripps Research reported taht some common strains of influenza have the potential to mutate to evade broad-acting antibodies that could be elicited by a universal flu vaccine. The findings highlight the challenges involved in designing such a vaccine, and should be useful in guiding its development.

In the study, published in Science, the researchers found evidence that one of the most common flu subtypes, H3N2, can mutate relatively easily to escape two antibodies that were thought to block nearly all flu strains.