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Can anyone just explain how in hell it takes so long to develop a vaccine? Vaccine creators aren't supposed to have billions of USD to make their job? What's t

Can anyone just explain how in hell it takes so long to develop a vaccine? Vaccine creators aren't supposed to have billions of USD to make their job? What's the real problem here?

pbourke 7y ago
1. Come up with the vaccine 2. Test vaccine on animals 3. Prove to regulators vaccine is safe enough for limited human trials 4. Conduct limited human trials 5. Research effectiveness of vaccine / absence of side effects 6. Conduct broader human trials 7. Step 5 again 8. Scale up production of vaccine Now, imagine that you can fail at any step and go back to the starting point.
- testplzignore 7y ago
  If this situation got really bad, what are the chances of this timeline being accelerated? The US has step 1 done now. Could we roll the dice on doing broader human trials immediately and also in parallel scale up production? Sure you might kill people in trials and waste lots of money, but may be better than the alternative of tens of millions dead.
  - mantap 7y ago
    Are you volunteering?
- mrfusion 7y ago
  I know most people here like to defend the established ways of doing things. But in an crisis like this we need to go back to first principles and see which steps are really needed and what can be speed up. Every day we waste people die.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - manquer 7y ago
    a rushed vaccine that has poorly understood side effects like say cancer rate differences or is fatal for people with some other disease is more dangerous than the disease itself. Many more people will end up taking the vaccine than just those having the infection.
cromulent 7y ago
My understanding is that it is very labor intensive and the manufacturing capacity is simply not there to make billions of doses in a short timescale (months). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Manufacturing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Manufacturin...

Can anyone just explain how in hell it takes so long to develop a vaccine? Vaccine creators aren't supposed to have billions of USD to make their job? What's the real problem here?

pbourke 7y ago

1. Come up with the vaccine 2. Test vaccine on animals 3. Prove to regulators vaccine is safe enough for limited human trials 4. Conduct limited human trials 5. Research effectiveness of vaccine / absence of side effects 6. Conduct broader human trials 7. Step 5 again 8. Scale up production of vaccine Now, imagine that you can fail at any step and go back to the starting point.

testplzignore 7y ago
If this situation got really bad, what are the chances of this timeline being accelerated? The US has step 1 done now. Could we roll the dice on doing broader human trials immediately and also in parallel scale up production? Sure you might kill people in trials and waste lots of money, but may be better than the alternative of tens of millions dead.
- mantap 7y ago
  Are you volunteering?
mrfusion 7y ago
I know most people here like to defend the established ways of doing things. But in an crisis like this we need to go back to first principles and see which steps are really needed and what can be speed up. Every day we waste people die.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- manquer 7y ago
  a rushed vaccine that has poorly understood side effects like say cancer rate differences or is fatal for people with some other disease is more dangerous than the disease itself. Many more people will end up taking the vaccine than just those having the infection.

cromulent 7y ago

My understanding is that it is very labor intensive and the manufacturing capacity is simply not there to make billions of doses in a short timescale (months). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Manufacturing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Manufacturin...