As debates over additional booster shots for COVID-19 intensify, many public health researchers are looking to the influenza model of vaccination as a guide for how to handle the lasting threat of SARS-CoV-2. That could mean annual shots, as is routine today with seasonal flu prophylaxis. But just as scientists have long sought a universal flu jab that can provide lasting protection against multiple subtypes of that respiratory virus, so too the field is on the hunt for pan-coronavirus vaccines that can ward off future variants of SARS-CoV-2 and preempt the next pandemic.
