Ecology and evolution of the flu

Influenza (flu) is a common infectious disease, but it is unusual in that the primary timescales for disease dynamics (epidemics) and viral evolution (new variants) are roughly the same. Recently, extraordinarily reliable phylogenetic reconstructions of flu virus evolution have been made using samples from both extant and extinct strains. In addition, because of their public health importance, flu epidemics have been monitored throughout the …