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It’s been kind-boggling to me that we haven’t been continuously updating the vaccines. Low turnaround time is one of the great benefits of mRNA vaccine technolo

It’s been kind-boggling to me that we haven’t been continuously updating the vaccines. Low turnaround time is one of the great benefits of mRNA vaccine technology and yet here we are crossing our fingers that evolutionary pressure doesn’t do what exactly evolutionary pressure always does. In some ways we’re creating a perfect environment to breed better Covid strains by applying “gentle” pressure against its imperfect initial form. It’s kind of amazing that we’ve figured how to take a reactionary approach (waiting until vaccine “failure” to start updating it) to what is normally a proactive policy (vaccination).

GuB-42 5y ago
We know our mRNA vaccines are safe and they worked great against Delta. Also Omicron is not a vaccine-optimized Delta, it is completely different strain that has evolved from an early variant. A vaccine targeting Delta probably wouldn't have fared better against Omicron. In fact, it could have been even worse. While making a new variant-optimized vaccine is easy and takes about a week, and maybe they have already done it. But it still takes months to test it and to produce it at scale. One thing for sure, it wouldn't have been ready for the current wave. I think one reason we don't have an omicron-specific vaccine underway is that we came out lucky with this variant. It is less deadly and vaccines are still effective against severe disease. If anything, the spread creates natural immunity. My guess is that the next big wave, which I hope will never happen, will not be Omicron but instead a new variant that escapes immunity offered by an Omicron pre-infection or vaccine. I think people are now looking for a more generic anti-coronavirus vaccine, capable of protection against all variants of SARS-CoV-2, and possibly other coronaviruses like SARS. But it is not as simple as copy-pasting the genetic code of the spike protein like with current vaccines.
- odyssey7 5y ago
  > One thing for sure, it wouldn't have been ready for the current wave. The reality is it isn’t ready for the current wave. It was easy enough to create, but the process of testing it and producing it at scale just haven’t been optimized. We should have been able to expect better from the $133 trillion global economic system.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  > We know our mRNA vaccines are safe and they worked great against Delta. Yes and no. We also knew that the mRNA vaccine’s neutralizing antibodies were something like 8x less effective against delta, but there was still enough left in the oomph budget to work. At least initially (at some point, your immune system wanes and that 8x less might become a bigger issue). Moderna was working on a spike-specific booster toward the original South African variant (I guess because it’s spike protein was sufficiently different to worry), but I think it died off because delta took over. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/moderna-test-booster-shot-targets-south-african-variant-rcna310 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/moderna-test-bo... My issue is that the trend was looking unfavourable, but we did nothing about it except pray.

GuB-42 5y ago

We know our mRNA vaccines are safe and they worked great against Delta. Also Omicron is not a vaccine-optimized Delta, it is completely different strain that has evolved from an early variant. A vaccine targeting Delta probably wouldn't have fared better against Omicron. In fact, it could have been even worse. While making a new variant-optimized vaccine is easy and takes about a week, and maybe they have already done it. But it still takes months to test it and to produce it at scale. One thing for sure, it wouldn't have been ready for the current wave. I think one reason we don't have an omicron-specific vaccine underway is that we came out lucky with this variant. It is less deadly and vaccines are still effective against severe disease. If anything, the spread creates natural immunity. My guess is that the next big wave, which I hope will never happen, will not be Omicron but instead a new variant that escapes immunity offered by an Omicron pre-infection or vaccine. I think people are now looking for a more generic anti-coronavirus vaccine, capable of protection against all variants of SARS-CoV-2, and possibly other coronaviruses like SARS. But it is not as simple as copy-pasting the genetic code of the spike protein like with current vaccines.

odyssey7 5y ago
> One thing for sure, it wouldn't have been ready for the current wave. The reality is it isn’t ready for the current wave. It was easy enough to create, but the process of testing it and producing it at scale just haven’t been optimized. We should have been able to expect better from the $133 trillion global economic system.
Scoundreller 5y ago
> We know our mRNA vaccines are safe and they worked great against Delta. Yes and no. We also knew that the mRNA vaccine’s neutralizing antibodies were something like 8x less effective against delta, but there was still enough left in the oomph budget to work. At least initially (at some point, your immune system wanes and that 8x less might become a bigger issue). Moderna was working on a spike-specific booster toward the original South African variant (I guess because it’s spike protein was sufficiently different to worry), but I think it died off because delta took over. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/moderna-test-booster-shot-targets-south-african-variant-rcna310 https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/moderna-test-bo... My issue is that the trend was looking unfavourable, but we did nothing about it except pray.