{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,16]],"date-time":"2026-03-16T13:32:39Z","timestamp":1773667959035,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,25]],"date-time":"2026-02-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771977600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped global viral transmission and created a natural experiment to test how non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) influence the evolution of co-circulating pathogens. We investigated the evolutionary dynamics of the influenza B\/Victoria lineage across China, the United States, and Australia\u2014three countries that implemented distinct COVID-19 policy strategies. Using hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and nucleoprotein (NP) sequences from GISAID (2016\u20132024), we performed temporal phylogenetic analyses and estimated rate of genetic distance change. Although the duration and strictness of NPIs varied among the three countries, our analysis revealed a transnational common pattern: the evolution of HA showed a marked slowdown during the NPI period. During the post-relaxation period, the population genetic distance of HA in the three countries showed a highly significant increase compared to the pre-pandemic period (comparison between post-relaxation vs. pre-pandemic period,\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    &amp;lt; 0.001). The magnitude and trajectory of these shifts differed by country, broadly aligning with policy timing and intensity. These findings highlight the sensitivity of influenza evolution to population-level interventions and underscore the value of integrating policy metrics into influenza surveillance and pandemic preparedness.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1791792","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,25]],"date-time":"2026-02-25T05:33:18Z","timestamp":1771997598000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Deceleration and rebound of hemagglutinin divergence in influenza B\/Victoria across COVID-19 NPI phases (2016\u20132024)"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Yue","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bin","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Cuilian","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sai","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yongan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhao","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]},{"name":"Swine Disease R&D Center, Shandong SINDER Technology Co., Ltd.","place":["Qingdao, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kezhou","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Laboratory Animal & Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"242","DOI":"10.1007\/s00292-018-0427-9","article-title":"[Clinical and pathological characteristics of intravascular lymphomas].","volume":"39","author":"Abraham","year":"2018","journal-title":"Pathologe"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1349","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-022-13597-9","article-title":"Mathematical modelling of vaccination rollout and NPIs lifting on COVID-19 transmission with VOC: A case study in Toronto, Canada.","volume":"22","author":"Aruffo","year":"2022","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"30","DOI":"10.1093\/bib\/bbaa080","article-title":"The road towards data integration in human genomics: Players, steps and interactions.","volume":"22","author":"Bernasconi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Brief. 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