Newfound flu protein may kill immune cells
By Ben Harder
That flu shot you might have gotten recently faces a more complex challenge than scientists had formerly realized.
A strain of the influenza A virus perpetrated the “Spanish Flu” pandemic in 1918 that killed more than 20 million people. Related strains caused two other deadly global outbreaks in the 20th century, and virologists consider a future epidemic to be a perennial threat. All of that from a germ with a molecular toolkit of only 10 known proteins.