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Correct, I've been told by medical professionals that there are hundred(s) of strains but the flu shot only covers the handful of strains they expect to be prevalent for that flu season. I have been wondering how they come up with that prediction though...

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https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm

Seems pretty straightforward. They look at which strains people have been testing positive for and how successful the previous vaccines were.

the challenge with influenza vaccines is that the virus can shift character faster than a vaccine can be produced so its a crap shoot of sorts for a good match.

This is why we need to perfect much more expedient vaccine production technology other than the attenuated virus method

The morbidity and mortality weekly report from a month or so back said that in intentional lab infections the influenza vaccine was only 45% effective in preventing infection this year.

One wonders if the flu metagenome is evolving to evade our primitive strain selection 'algorithm'

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