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Basically it is impossible to prove the vaccine is safe enough to give to the general population for a disease that is not normally lethal. By the time you had

Basically it is impossible to prove the vaccine is safe enough to give to the general population for a disease that is not normally lethal. By the time you had finished the studies to the satisfaction of the FDA your patent would have expired and each vaccine would need to cost $100K per person to pay back the development costs. If pharmaceutical companies thought there was a fortune to be made curing the common cold they would be doing it.

mft_ 9y ago
Do you have any more information to explain this further? For example, how are 'flu vaccines approved each year? Is it because 'flu can be lethal in rare cases?
- danieltillett 9y ago
  The reason flu vaccines are approved each year is they were first developed in the 1940s and we just keep using 1940s technology. If were to try to develop a flu vaccine today it would be impossible.
  - mft_ 9y ago
    Can you point towards any further information on this, please? I'd like to read more.
alphydan 9y ago
$100,000 x 1,000,000,000 people = $1 x 10^14 (assuming most people in the US+Europe are vaccinated). I assume it's hyperbole and you don't mean to say that the studies required by the FDA are comparable to the GDP of the US? Are you sure a price of $100 would not cover it?
- danieltillett 9y ago
  It is not cost (I was referring to the cost of curing hepC), but that it is impossible to get a vaccine past the FDA for the common cold. It would actually be easier to bribe congress to shut down the FDA than perform the studies required to get a cold vaccine approved - at the very least the bribery approach has a chance of success.
- Kluny 9y ago
  Why are you assuming most in Europe and the US would be vaccinated? If it's not life-threatening, most people won't bother. Most people don't even bother to get the flu vaccine each year. I got a Hep B vaccination when I went to South America, but I never got around to going back for the booster shot. I'm a firm believer in vaccines, and my children will certainly get all of theirs on schedule, but I'm unlikely to get a cold vaccine for myself - and suspicion that the vaccine isn't really good for me in the long run would be part of my reason, beyond laziness.

mft_ 9y ago

Do you have any more information to explain this further? For example, how are 'flu vaccines approved each year? Is it because 'flu can be lethal in rare cases?

danieltillett 9y ago
The reason flu vaccines are approved each year is they were first developed in the 1940s and we just keep using 1940s technology. If were to try to develop a flu vaccine today it would be impossible.
- mft_ 9y ago
  Can you point towards any further information on this, please? I'd like to read more.

alphydan 9y ago

$100,000 x 1,000,000,000 people = $1 x 10^14 (assuming most people in the US+Europe are vaccinated). I assume it's hyperbole and you don't mean to say that the studies required by the FDA are comparable to the GDP of the US? Are you sure a price of $100 would not cover it?

danieltillett 9y ago
It is not cost (I was referring to the cost of curing hepC), but that it is impossible to get a vaccine past the FDA for the common cold. It would actually be easier to bribe congress to shut down the FDA than perform the studies required to get a cold vaccine approved - at the very least the bribery approach has a chance of success.
Kluny 9y ago
Why are you assuming most in Europe and the US would be vaccinated? If it's not life-threatening, most people won't bother. Most people don't even bother to get the flu vaccine each year. I got a Hep B vaccination when I went to South America, but I never got around to going back for the booster shot. I'm a firm believer in vaccines, and my children will certainly get all of theirs on schedule, but I'm unlikely to get a cold vaccine for myself - and suspicion that the vaccine isn't really good for me in the long run would be part of my reason, beyond laziness.