Health A final-stage trial has started of an mRNA vaccine against the bird flu strain infecting many animals – and occasionally people – worldwide Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email A vaccine now in development could help in the event of a bird flu pandemic Weyo / Alamy It was roughly a year after the earliest cases of covid-19 before the first vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus were ready for roll-out. By then millions had died worldwide and economies were devastated. In the advent of a bird flu pandemic, we will be able to react more rapidly, because we should have an mRNA vaccine already approved and ready to go. A phase III trial of such a vaccine is now getting under way in the UK and the US. “A flu pandemic is the most likely future pandemic. And it’s really critical that we ensure we’re properly prepared,” says Richard Pebody at the UK Health Security Agency. The main threat is a strain of H5N1 bird flu called clade 2.3.4.4b.…