4 ms·

I would say your risk in taking a homemade vaccine is greater than your risk from Covid if you don’t take the homemade vaccine. The homemade vaccine is unlikely

I would say your risk in taking a homemade vaccine is greater than your risk from Covid if you don’t take the homemade vaccine. The homemade vaccine is unlikely to work so it won’t decrease covid risk much to you or others. The expected value is low. It seems like it’s probably more likely to harm you, either directly because you’re shooting amateur-made chemicals up your nose, or indirectly because it might give you false confidence or make Covid hurt you more if you do contract it. It’s an interesting idea to make your own vaccine, but clearly a bad one.

Kim_Bruning 6y ago
Why do you think it's a bad idea to make your own vaccine? Does your opinion change if you assume the person making the vaccine has had lab training?
- mattmaroon 6y ago
  I guess there would clearly be some people who would be much more likely to be successful than others. I can’t imagine it’s a good idea in our current situation, in which there are very effective vaccines that have gone through extensive testing that will soon be readily available. Several of the vaccine candidates from a year ago have failed. So even pros with virtually unlimited budgets fail a decent amount of the time. Perhaps there’s a case where someone for whatever reason will not be able to buy a safe vaccine soon, is at real risk of contracting covid, is demographically at high risk from covid, and has enough knowledge and access to proper materials to make their own, and for that person it is a smart move. I don’t know. Anything is possible. I’m also defining bad idea as worse than the alternatives. It’s like riding a motorcycle. I consider that a bad idea because you have a much, much higher chance of dying than in a car. But your most likely result is neutral. Most people who try to make a vaccine will probably just lose a little money and time. And I should note I do things that are bad ideas sometimes too. If you’re doing it for fun or education or whatever else that’s fine, you should just be realistic about the risk you are incurring.
  - Kim_Bruning 6y ago
    It's so strange to see people switch to the other side in an open source/hacking debate, when it comes to hacking systems that are not 'traditional' computers. Of course in this case the systems in question are actually most definitely Turing complete on many levels; and much, much older. 'Life' is ultra-advanced (non-artificially) intelligent (non-alien) nano-technology. If that doesn't seem totally fascinating and something people might want to hack... what on earth does?
    - mattmaroon 6y ago
      Yeah it’s interesting. I read the article and enjoyed it. I’ve really got no problem with someone doing it. I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t be able to so I don’t feel I’ve switched sides. But someone said that your risk from covid was higher than your risk from a home made vaccine, and to me that’s almost certainly untrue for nearly everyone at best. That’s where the thread started. I was disagreeing with someone’s obviously poor risk assessment.
      - Kim_Bruning 6y ago
        Fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to explain your thinking!

Kim_Bruning 6y ago

Why do you think it's a bad idea to make your own vaccine? Does your opinion change if you assume the person making the vaccine has had lab training?

mattmaroon 6y ago
I guess there would clearly be some people who would be much more likely to be successful than others. I can’t imagine it’s a good idea in our current situation, in which there are very effective vaccines that have gone through extensive testing that will soon be readily available. Several of the vaccine candidates from a year ago have failed. So even pros with virtually unlimited budgets fail a decent amount of the time. Perhaps there’s a case where someone for whatever reason will not be able to buy a safe vaccine soon, is at real risk of contracting covid, is demographically at high risk from covid, and has enough knowledge and access to proper materials to make their own, and for that person it is a smart move. I don’t know. Anything is possible. I’m also defining bad idea as worse than the alternatives. It’s like riding a motorcycle. I consider that a bad idea because you have a much, much higher chance of dying than in a car. But your most likely result is neutral. Most people who try to make a vaccine will probably just lose a little money and time. And I should note I do things that are bad ideas sometimes too. If you’re doing it for fun or education or whatever else that’s fine, you should just be realistic about the risk you are incurring.
- Kim_Bruning 6y ago
  It's so strange to see people switch to the other side in an open source/hacking debate, when it comes to hacking systems that are not 'traditional' computers. Of course in this case the systems in question are actually most definitely Turing complete on many levels; and much, much older. 'Life' is ultra-advanced (non-artificially) intelligent (non-alien) nano-technology. If that doesn't seem totally fascinating and something people might want to hack... what on earth does?
  - mattmaroon 6y ago
    Yeah it’s interesting. I read the article and enjoyed it. I’ve really got no problem with someone doing it. I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t be able to so I don’t feel I’ve switched sides. But someone said that your risk from covid was higher than your risk from a home made vaccine, and to me that’s almost certainly untrue for nearly everyone at best. That’s where the thread started. I was disagreeing with someone’s obviously poor risk assessment.
    - Kim_Bruning 6y ago
      Fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to explain your thinking!