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> Therefore I can't imagine how a vaccine targeting the original spike protein would be expected to be more effective than one targeting the spike protein from
by passivate 5y ago
> Therefore I can't imagine how a vaccine targeting the original spike protein would be expected to be more effective than one targeting the spike protein from Omicron against new variants.
Well, besides imagining, we're also doing science, so what does the data that you've seen say?
- tempestn 5y agoIs there data out there comparing variant-specific vaccines to the original in their effectiveness against derivative variants? I haven't seen anything like that. Perhaps there is a reason the original vaccine would be expected to be more broadly effective, as my parent said. It's not intuitive to me, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. Hence my question.
- passivate 5y agoMy point was that our human body doesn't work by rhetorical reasoning or intuition. There are often things we discover about our immune system that are counter intuitive - for e.g. Using specially developed & formulated vaccines to teach the body to suppress immune response towards antigens (via Treg cells), rather than to neutralize them which is what most vaccines aim to do. Specifically I was objecting to "Given X, we wouldn't expect Y to happen" aspect of your argument. Its never so simple with the human body! It works in many other domains, and so as a former programmer myself I have to catch myself trying to apply such reasoning to biological systems which can't be modeled like that.