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> Moreover, their study suggests that antibody responses raised against SARS-CoV could at least partially protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Interesting ide

> Moreover, their study suggests that antibody responses raised against SARS-CoV could at least partially protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Interesting idea. Infect everyone with the “mild” version of SARS to protect against the severe one.

eganist 7y ago
> Interesting idea. Infect everyone with the “mild” version of SARS to protect against the severe one. Two notes: 1. SARS-CoV is the 2003 strain, which is generally accepted as being the more severe - yet more difficult to transmit - strain of coronavirus. So in this case (unless I'm misunderstanding), people who caught and survived the more severe SARS-CoV in 2003-2004 are less likely to be as affected by the milder SARS-CoV-2 strain. Worth noting that the population of people infected by SARS-CoV is not all that high, so the value isn't so much that there's a population protected from SARS-CoV-2 as it's that there's enough of a similarity between the two strains that we could learn a few useful things about treating the latter. 2. The model you described, using a milder agent to protect against a severe one, is the original concept behind vaccines, done by Dr. Edward Jenner with Cowpox to protect against Smallpox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine
mytailorisrich 7y ago
SARS (SARS-CoV) is more lethal than Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2)... You certainly don't want to infect anyone with SARS!
- Wistar 7y ago
  Aren't viral vaccinations typically a "dead" strain of the virus? Although I don't really understand what, exactly, that means.
  - totalZero 7y ago
    In that type of vaccine, it's exactly as you say. They kill the virus with heat or chemicals, then introduce dead virus into the body. The human body learns the structures on the surface of the virus, recognizes those structures as bad, and releases antibodies if they ever reappear. It's like someone showing you a dead man and saying "he is survived by an identical twin brother that is wanted for murder."
  - TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
    That is one kind of vaccination, but it's not the only kind, right?
    - Wistar 7y ago
      I dug around and found vaccines.gov which says that there are four vaccine types: • Live-attenuated vaccines: these use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease. • Inactivated vaccines: these use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease. • Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines: these use specific pieces of the germ — like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ). • Toxoid vaccines: these use a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease. They create immunity to the parts of the germ that cause a disease instead of the germ itself. https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types
  - ashildr 7y ago
    This old process takes long and needs a lot of ressources. Culturing a virus is slow. The new vaccine will likely be a protein that provokes an immune reaction to some essential part of the virus and it will be made by more effective means like genetic modification of eg. a pet microbe or yeast. No egg as a side dish I guess.

eganist 7y ago

> Interesting idea. Infect everyone with the “mild” version of SARS to protect against the severe one. Two notes: 1. SARS-CoV is the 2003 strain, which is generally accepted as being the more severe - yet more difficult to transmit - strain of coronavirus. So in this case (unless I'm misunderstanding), people who caught and survived the more severe SARS-CoV in 2003-2004 are less likely to be as affected by the milder SARS-CoV-2 strain. Worth noting that the population of people infected by SARS-CoV is not all that high, so the value isn't so much that there's a population protected from SARS-CoV-2 as it's that there's enough of a similarity between the two strains that we could learn a few useful things about treating the latter. 2. The model you described, using a milder agent to protect against a severe one, is the original concept behind vaccines, done by Dr. Edward Jenner with Cowpox to protect against Smallpox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine

mytailorisrich 7y ago

SARS (SARS-CoV) is more lethal than Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2)... You certainly don't want to infect anyone with SARS!

Wistar 7y ago
Aren't viral vaccinations typically a "dead" strain of the virus? Although I don't really understand what, exactly, that means.
- totalZero 7y ago
  In that type of vaccine, it's exactly as you say. They kill the virus with heat or chemicals, then introduce dead virus into the body. The human body learns the structures on the surface of the virus, recognizes those structures as bad, and releases antibodies if they ever reappear. It's like someone showing you a dead man and saying "he is survived by an identical twin brother that is wanted for murder."
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
  That is one kind of vaccination, but it's not the only kind, right?
  - Wistar 7y ago
    I dug around and found vaccines.gov which says that there are four vaccine types: • Live-attenuated vaccines: these use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease. • Inactivated vaccines: these use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease. • Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines: these use specific pieces of the germ — like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ). • Toxoid vaccines: these use a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease. They create immunity to the parts of the germ that cause a disease instead of the germ itself. https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/types
- ashildr 7y ago
  This old process takes long and needs a lot of ressources. Culturing a virus is slow. The new vaccine will likely be a protein that provokes an immune reaction to some essential part of the virus and it will be made by more effective means like genetic modification of eg. a pet microbe or yeast. No egg as a side dish I guess.