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I figured there'd be a Nobel Prize for the mRNA vaccines. This is deserved and the further impacts of this are going to be felt for decades. Some background: f
by jmyeet 3y ago
I figured there'd be a Nobel Prize for the mRNA vaccines. This is deserved and the further impacts of this are going to be felt for decades.
Some background: for many years, the flu vaccine has had what's called the "egg problem". The vaccine is cultivated in chicken eggs in a sterile environment. The US government pays billions every year to maintain these production lines. It takes about 4-5 months to go from choosing what flu strainsa are likely to be prevalent to there being a vaccine. The production line can't scale up quickly either.
Also, people who are allergic eggs can't generally take the flu vaccine. That's why they ask you.
For decades the US government has funded research to get away from this system and that resulted in the mRNA vaccine. It doesn't require chicken eggs to produce and the lead time for producing a vaccine goes to almost immediate. we saw this with Covid where the candidate vaccines were produced in days. This fed into conspiracy theories about it being unsafe because it was rushed but it was nothing more than the culmination of decades of research where fast vaccine turnaround was the entire point.
In future years we'll see mRNA vaccines turned to diseases that have thus far we've been unable to produce vaccines for.
- ifyoubuildit 3y agoI'm hopeful that you're right about the future of the technology. > This fed into conspiracy theories about it being unsafe because it was rushed but it was nothing more than the culmination of decades of research where fast vaccine turnaround was the entire point. That's one interpretation. I wonder if you'd apply that same interpretation to the first few viable aircraft. Surely flight was studied for millennia at the point that the wright brothers got their plane flying. Would you hop in and try to cross the Atlantic on one? Or would you fall prey to conspiracy theories that maybe they hadn't worked out all the kinks yet? edit: I suppose I'm being downvoted for spreading Big Wheel's antiwinger talking points.
- foogazi 3y agoI still think about this when flying, ultimately it’s a choice and you have to trust a whole chain of humans ( pilots, techs, controllers, engineers, suppliers ) doing things the right way - makes you realize flight is really a miracle
- ifyoubuildit 3y agoI dont mind getting in a plane these days (aside from all the bullshit you have to deal with on either end of the trip). I would be a little hesitant to be strapped into Flyer I or even Flyer II. I wonder if there was stigma for that position back then? Maybe if it had the right marketing budget.
- thinkcontext 3y ago> I suppose I'm being downvoted for spreading Big Wheel's antiwinger talking points. No, for an absolutely abysmal analogy.
- ifyoubuildit 3y agoI'm responding to the argument that decades of research is enough to feel safe using a technology. Maybe there is a better argument, but OP didn't make it. How long have we studied the fountain of youth? The cure for baldness? Penis enlargement pills? Would you trust any of today's solutions to those problems? Research time is necessary but not sufficient. What I and many others care about is time in production usage. What's so abysmal about this line of thinking?
- whoisthemachine 3y agoThe comparison you made was not accurate. We have a pretty good handle on the science of how the body builds up immunity to pathogens (most lay folks can tell you something about white blood cells). I think a more apt analogy would be prop planes are to dead virus vaccines as jet planes are to mRNA vaccines. And I do think we were jumping into jet planes fairly quickly after inventing them, because at that point we already understood the principles of flight well, jet turbine engines were just another mechanism of delivery.
- ifyoubuildit 3y agoWhat does pretty good handle mean to you? We obviously know some things - we have various models that are predictive. We seem decent at figuring out if I do X, then Y will happen with some frequency. And thats the sort of thing that will sell a drug like hot cakes. We don't seem good at knowing that it doesn't also cause Z, A, B, C, etc, and by the time you figure any of that out, the checks have already been cashed and spent. I don't think lay folks being able to regurgitate some terminology says much. Lay folks could tell you that birds flap their wings long before we had controlled manned flight.
- 3y ago
- bigbillheck 3y ago> edit: I suppose I'm being downvoted for spreading Big Wheel's antiwinger talking points. I downvoted you for complaining about being downvoted.