4 ms·

Great news, but very expensive compared to a vaccine.

nradov 5y ago
It's not either / or. Vaccines are great but they aren't 100% effective so we still want additional treatments. Hopefully drug researchers will figure out how to mass produce the active ingredients at a lower cost.
- landemva 5y ago
  The issue with natural products is lack of patent protection, so drug developers are unwilling to develop plant extracts. It could be reasonable to anticipate non-profits such as Johns Hopkins or Vanderbilt to pursue ideas like this, but it doesn't happen.
  - landemva 5y ago
    I wonder if those down-voting have any comments, or simply think corporate medical greed is really good.
    - bawolff 5y ago
      Maybe they just think the situation is a bit more nuanced than how you presented it.
criticaltinker 5y ago
You can't grow the vaccine in your garden though. Jokes aside, there's a long way to go before this line of research leads to a product anywhere near as effective as vaccination. Quoting from the OP: - "CBD is quite hydrophobic and forms large micellar structures that are trapped and broken down in the liver, thereby limiting the amount of drug available to other tissues after oral administration." - "other means of CBD administration such as vaping and smoking raise concerns about potential lung damage" - "The purity of CBD and, in particular, the composition of the materials labelled as CBD are also important, especially in light of our findings suggesting that other cannabinoids such as THC might act to counter CBD antiviral efficacy" - "The necessary human in vivo concentration and optimal route and formulation remain to be defined"
- gruez 5y ago
  > You can't grow the vaccine in your garden though. A sibling comment mentions that it's non-trivial to produce by someone with just a garden. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28122533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28122533
  - grawprog 5y ago
    Yeah making CBD isolate in one's backyard is pretty unfeasible. It requires a distillation column on top of the vaccuum chamber, oven and solvent recirculation equipment required for typical cannabis extracts made in large quantities. The process essentially involves blasting the material with solvents, evaporating the material inside a pressure controlled vacuum chamber oven then, collecting the various components in a distillation column as they're evaporated away at different temperatures. It's a dangerous process that requires high quality equipment and a proper environment to do safely and produce a product you'd actually want to use. Not the, 'average person can make Willy nilly in their kitchen after growing a few plants' kinda thing. It's more of a requires a trained team of technicians and a certified lab kinda thing.
Mikeb85 5y ago
It's meant to be therapeutic, not preventative. There are valid reasons for not being vaccinated (rare though) and it seems the vaccinated still have a small chance of getting Covid (albeit rare and mild) so it can be used to manage symptoms. Maybe if I ever get Covid again it'll be mild and this will just help it along like cold and flu medicine...
- blago 5y ago
  Hey Mike, did you ever make good on that bet that you lost by stubbornly claiming that COVID was just a bad flu and it was never going to kill millions and fill hospitals, when the world was already burning? I'm going to go on the limb and guess not. In case you forgot, @Lewton suggested that you donate here: https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly BTW, did you actually confirm that you had COVID because as I remember it, you just had a feeling that prior sniffles might've been COVID.
  - Mikeb85 5y ago
    Yes I did donate and I would have even if I had won the bet. I have a soft spot for good causes even if I'm stubborn sometimes. Also, last pandemic that killed millions was a flu... Just sayin. Guess I was too optimistic about how far this one would spread. And yes it was confirmed that I had it (antibody test when things died down a lil). Since then many people who I know got Covid, they all had less symptoms than I did. I also had to quarantine a bunch of times for having contact with them (never got sick again though). Was an interesting year. How do you remember? As you pointed out, my bet was with Lewton (there's no DM feature here eh?).
    - blago 5y ago
      It's hard to forget someone with such poor, but loud, judgment, and arrogant aversion to numbers and logic.
      - redis_mlc 5y ago

It's not either / or. Vaccines are great but they aren't 100% effective so we still want additional treatments. Hopefully drug researchers will figure out how to mass produce the active ingredients at a lower cost.

landemva 5y ago
The issue with natural products is lack of patent protection, so drug developers are unwilling to develop plant extracts. It could be reasonable to anticipate non-profits such as Johns Hopkins or Vanderbilt to pursue ideas like this, but it doesn't happen.
- landemva 5y ago
  I wonder if those down-voting have any comments, or simply think corporate medical greed is really good.
  - bawolff 5y ago
    Maybe they just think the situation is a bit more nuanced than how you presented it.

criticaltinker 5y ago

You can't grow the vaccine in your garden though. Jokes aside, there's a long way to go before this line of research leads to a product anywhere near as effective as vaccination. Quoting from the OP: - "CBD is quite hydrophobic and forms large micellar structures that are trapped and broken down in the liver, thereby limiting the amount of drug available to other tissues after oral administration." - "other means of CBD administration such as vaping and smoking raise concerns about potential lung damage" - "The purity of CBD and, in particular, the composition of the materials labelled as CBD are also important, especially in light of our findings suggesting that other cannabinoids such as THC might act to counter CBD antiviral efficacy" - "The necessary human in vivo concentration and optimal route and formulation remain to be defined"

gruez 5y ago
> You can't grow the vaccine in your garden though. A sibling comment mentions that it's non-trivial to produce by someone with just a garden. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28122533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28122533
- grawprog 5y ago
  Yeah making CBD isolate in one's backyard is pretty unfeasible. It requires a distillation column on top of the vaccuum chamber, oven and solvent recirculation equipment required for typical cannabis extracts made in large quantities. The process essentially involves blasting the material with solvents, evaporating the material inside a pressure controlled vacuum chamber oven then, collecting the various components in a distillation column as they're evaporated away at different temperatures. It's a dangerous process that requires high quality equipment and a proper environment to do safely and produce a product you'd actually want to use. Not the, 'average person can make Willy nilly in their kitchen after growing a few plants' kinda thing. It's more of a requires a trained team of technicians and a certified lab kinda thing.

Mikeb85 5y ago

It's meant to be therapeutic, not preventative. There are valid reasons for not being vaccinated (rare though) and it seems the vaccinated still have a small chance of getting Covid (albeit rare and mild) so it can be used to manage symptoms. Maybe if I ever get Covid again it'll be mild and this will just help it along like cold and flu medicine...

blago 5y ago
Hey Mike, did you ever make good on that bet that you lost by stubbornly claiming that COVID was just a bad flu and it was never going to kill millions and fill hospitals, when the world was already burning? I'm going to go on the limb and guess not. In case you forgot, @Lewton suggested that you donate here: https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly https://www.givewell.org/charities/give-directly BTW, did you actually confirm that you had COVID because as I remember it, you just had a feeling that prior sniffles might've been COVID.
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  Yes I did donate and I would have even if I had won the bet. I have a soft spot for good causes even if I'm stubborn sometimes. Also, last pandemic that killed millions was a flu... Just sayin. Guess I was too optimistic about how far this one would spread. And yes it was confirmed that I had it (antibody test when things died down a lil). Since then many people who I know got Covid, they all had less symptoms than I did. I also had to quarantine a bunch of times for having contact with them (never got sick again though). Was an interesting year. How do you remember? As you pointed out, my bet was with Lewton (there's no DM feature here eh?).
  - blago 5y ago
    It's hard to forget someone with such poor, but loud, judgment, and arrogant aversion to numbers and logic.
    - redis_mlc 5y ago