Cant we anticipate what viruses might cause a pandemic and make a vaccine available?
There is no vaccine ready to protect against pandemic flu. The virus that causes pandemic flu will be new and a vaccine to protect against it cannot be made until the virus has been identified. Before a pandemic starts it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict what strain will cause it and even then, predictions may prove wrong, or the predicted virus may have changed enough for a pre-prepared vaccine to be ineffective. Ordinary flu vaccines will not provide protection and having had a flu jab in the recent past does not protect someone.
