5 ms·
>I have wondered if the COVID-19 pandemic might lead to some results, like extermination of the common cold, that humans would look back on and say that it was
by whymauri 5y ago
>I have wondered if the COVID-19 pandemic might lead to some results, like extermination of the common cold, that humans would look back on and say that it was a net benefit.
I'm not sure if you could attribute COVID-19 to such a success. Several highly skilled teams are working on this and other concerning diseases like Tuberculosis (independent of COVID).
- jostmey 5y agoYes, but many of new therapies, such as mRNA vaccines, were slow to receive approval, and have been sitting on the drawing board for a decade
- whymauri 5y agoSure, but maybe the flu isn't the best example. I'm long MRNA and big fan of the vaccine's technology. It was a biochem nerd dream getting my first shot!
- passivate 5y agoAgreed, but it was given a temporary emergency approval due to the pandemic. We need long term data on technologies before we immunize hundreds of millions of people with it.
- 8note 5y agoHuh? How many millions have been immunized so far with it?
- passivate 5y agoWhat question did you have for me? I see your comment as a statement.
- hilbertseries 5y agoThe point is clear you said > We need long term data on technologies before we immunize hundreds of millions of people with it. But we have already done this, hundreds of millions of people have received the mRNA vaccines.
- passivate 5y agoWe don't have long term (5+ years) data though, which was my point. It was authorized as an emergency measure due to the pandemic.
- soared 5y agoOPs point is that because of covid-19 we quickly threw trillions (?) of dollars at the problem, and without covid-19 the funding/attention/determination/man-power etc would be much less.
- whymauri 5y agoI probably read too much into their usage of the flu as an example. But yes, mRNA will lead to benefits beyond COVID. Some of the computational techniques developed for COVID will likely assist other drug discovery and development processes.