We do assign identifiers with the year of emergence to flu strains.

For example, the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic virus is called H1N1-pdm-09 (or just H1N1/09) in literature.

we probably should though. The flu is different every year. Which is why we need new flu shots every year. Giving it a new name would help the public understand.

That's bad thinking: the public doesn't want to understand. The public is what on HN would be called a "bad manager", and says crazy shit like "don't bring me problems, bring me solutions!"

Curing the Flu is a solution. The public wants this, not a flu shot, no matter how impossible the task is. A flu shot every year is just band-aiding the problem, and redelivering said problem every year.

Well, maybe a cure would be if we were able to vaccinate everyone simultaneously and wipe out all the circulating virus. Perhaps this is becoming more realistic with the advent of mRNA vaccines and the promise of “vaccine printers”?

But, we’d also need to rout out all the reservoirs of flu virus in agriculture and nature that have the potential to jump species back to humans. That’s a lot of ducks, chickens, pigs, whales, horses, seals, etc to vaccinate or cull.