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The great thing is that the next time this happens, a vaccine can be created equally quickly.
by andyv 6y ago
The great thing is that the next time this happens, a vaccine can be created equally quickly.
- api 6y agoMaybe... depends on the virus. This won’t work for things like HIV or rapidly mutating viruses. It will probably work for any relative coronaviruses
- superbaconman 6y agoActually, Moderna is working on an hiv vaccine using similar tech. Sounds like they're pretty early on in testing though.
- bluGill 6y agoThere are many working on HIV vaccines. The virus mutates so fast that all previous attempts have failed. I wish them luck, but I'm not confident that it is possible. Time will tell.
- djsumdog 6y agoI don't think that's the issue. With any virus, your immune system grows countermeasures exponentially (memory t-cells, antibodies, protein complements) to stop it. These stick around after the virus is gone. It's an immune system "memory" In another infection, your cells still get infected, but the infection is just stopped very quickly. HIV has inscription and reverse transcription enzymes in it, so it can actually glue its sequence into your DNA. It changes your DNA enough to replicate it, but not enough that your cells change their structure so your immune system can't recognize them as infected (and those changes can cause your immune system to fail over time: AIDS). Even if your body is primed to deal with HIV infections, if the infection happens, it's already too late. I'm not sure who antiviral drugs like PREP work, but you'd need something like that permanently in your system.
- evancox100 6y agoYes but if they don't do phase 1/2 safety trials ahead of time we will still have the months-long regulatory wait.