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There are 151 vaccine candidates in preclinical and 42 in clinical trials globally. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candida

There are 151 vaccine candidates in preclinical and 42 in clinical trials globally. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-c... There are thousands and thousands of people in the biomedical field all around the world working furiously behind the scenes at the moment on this problem. Unfortunately, there is no single mouthpiece for this effort so people aren't aware of how many people are pulling out the stops, but despite how bleak things may look there are a lot of MDs and PhDs and MD/PhDs trucking away trying to find a way out of this thing.

stainforth 6y ago
That Noble Prize thread was a little chilling. Are these researchers collaborating on this virus or keeping findings to themselves?
- phobosanomaly 6y ago
  Ok, fair enough. I dunno if I'm 100% on this, but I'll argue it: It's important to keep in mind the difference between clinical and basic lab research. Basic lab research is done in a sort of a closed system. There's a small group of people (grad students, post-docs) working on a limited set of projects. They all have their individual lab notebooks that are property of the lab. Nobody has to disclose anything to anybody, except the IRB and whoever is handing out grant money. The head of the lab, well their entire career depends on what that...lab...does... There is no plan B, other than teaching at a liberal-arts school or community college. Most clinical researchers aren't as against-the-ropes in terms of their career as PhDs, because they're doctors and they can just go do medicine. Wups, my clinical study didn't work out, guess I'll go be absolutely.........fine.......... Plus, it's harder to keep things secret in a hospital. There's a lot more variables, and it's not as closed a system as a lab. So for the COVID stuff, you have both MDs/DOs and PhDs working alongside each other in multidisciplinary teams. Thus, information is not as readily concealable and so there's less paranoia because....well, what's the point?

stainforth 6y ago

That Noble Prize thread was a little chilling. Are these researchers collaborating on this virus or keeping findings to themselves?

phobosanomaly 6y ago
Ok, fair enough. I dunno if I'm 100% on this, but I'll argue it: It's important to keep in mind the difference between clinical and basic lab research. Basic lab research is done in a sort of a closed system. There's a small group of people (grad students, post-docs) working on a limited set of projects. They all have their individual lab notebooks that are property of the lab. Nobody has to disclose anything to anybody, except the IRB and whoever is handing out grant money. The head of the lab, well their entire career depends on what that...lab...does... There is no plan B, other than teaching at a liberal-arts school or community college. Most clinical researchers aren't as against-the-ropes in terms of their career as PhDs, because they're doctors and they can just go do medicine. Wups, my clinical study didn't work out, guess I'll go be absolutely.........fine.......... Plus, it's harder to keep things secret in a hospital. There's a lot more variables, and it's not as closed a system as a lab. So for the COVID stuff, you have both MDs/DOs and PhDs working alongside each other in multidisciplinary teams. Thus, information is not as readily concealable and so there's less paranoia because....well, what's the point?