Invited Editorial: Despite COVID-19 Influenza Must Not Be Relegated to Only the Sniffles

摘要

As the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage worldwide, it has emerged that the 2019–2020 influenza season has been milder and shorter than usual in the northern hemisphere, presumably due to enforced social distancing. Thus, for example, in countries relatively successful in containing SARS-CoV-2, influenza burden and pneumonia deaths were significantly lower than expected for the season [1]. Nonetheless, seasonal influenza remains a major public health concern and despite the fact that vaccines have been available for decades, they are not optimally protective for all segments of the population [2]. Only a small fraction of the vast resources freed up for research into developing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine has ever been invested in influenza vaccines, and there remains an urgent need for improvements to prevent the average 500,000 influenza deaths per year usually recorded. Five recent reviews published in this journal have addressed different aspects of this challenge, from improvements to conventional seasonal vaccines and the use of RNA as the immunogen, the development of a universal vaccine applicable for every influenza season, the necessity for vaccines to stimulate cellular as well as humoral immunity, and importantly, how to measure the effectiveness of vaccines in development and practice, and the impact of previous exposures on a new challenge. Together, they form a blueprint for efforts to improve the efficiency of influenza vaccination to mitigate the acute and chronic effects of an infectious disease that remains a major public health challenge even during the COVID-19 pandemic.