In 2009, the elderly population were less susceptible to severe influenza (Dawood et al., 2012) as they were protected through cross-reactive antibodies and CD8+ T cells acquired during previous seasonal infections, including the antigenically related A/H1N1 virus that circulated prior to 1957 (Yu et al., 2008; Hancock et al., 2009; Ikonen et al., 2010). The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is influenza.