2 ms·

Given the economics at play, I don’t think you’re giving enough credit to virologists. If such an exercise could save TRILLIONS of dollars in the short to mid

Given the economics at play, I don’t think you’re giving enough credit to virologists. If such an exercise could save TRILLIONS of dollars in the short to mid term, do you still stand by your statement? This is not even a novel idea. The idea of finding and spreading the least harmful variants was proposed very early in the pandemic (circa June 2020) in an article I read here. Of course that’s slightly different than what GP proposed. However, I would’ve never thought that mRNA vaccines could be produced so quickly. Given the incentives at play, I bet a surprising amount is possible.

kennywinker 5y ago
> If such an exercise could save TRILLIONS of dollars in the short to mid term, do you still stand by your statement? Absolutely I do. You can test for binding affinity to receptors, and make a guess - but you can’t know, and releasing a modified virus without knowing would be reckless beyond comprehension. It’s a good idea, for sure, and one day we may be able to do things like this intentionally, but I’m pretty confidant we’re not there today.