Can a vaccine be made to protect against pandemic flu?
Vaccines against bird flu are already being made and tested. Experts are also testing new ways of making vaccine quickly. If pandemic flu occurs, we ll need a vaccine for the specific virus causing the pandemic. Flu viruses change constantly so there s little time to prepare a vaccine in advance. This new virus would be different from the current bird flu virus. So although it’s possible we may have a bird flu vaccine, it’s also possible it may not work on the pandemic flu virus. It s also difficult to make large amounts of vaccine without knowing the exact pandemic flu virus. How long will it take to make enough pandemic flu vaccine for everyone? The long-term goal is to have enough vaccine for everyone. However, if there’s a vaccine, it will likely be in short supply during the early stages of a pandemic. Today, it could take a year to produce enough vaccine for everyone in the U.S. Current techniques require months to make and test vaccines, and there are only two U.S. producers of
