8 ms·

When COVID hit one of the few positives was that a lot of people joined in cross-discipline research to address it. This type of treatment sounds amazing, and I

When COVID hit one of the few positives was that a lot of people joined in cross-discipline research to address it. This type of treatment sounds amazing, and I know mRNA vaccines were in development for a long time before COVID, but I have to wonder if this research would have taken a lot longer to happen had COVID not happened. What other secondary impacts has the research into COVID had?

Terr_ 3y ago
That reminds me of a piece about the "source code" of one of the mRNA vaccines [0], which had an amusing bit showcasing how one kind of pre-pandemic research was hugely important in preparing the necessary tools for when they were needed: > It turns out that, unmodified, freestanding Spike proteins collapse into a different structure. If injected as a vaccine, this would indeed cause our bodies to develop immunity... but only against the collapsed spike protein. > And the real SARS-CoV-2 shows up with the spiky Spike. The vaccine would not work very well in that case. > So what to do? In 2017 it was described how putting a double Proline substitution in just the right place would make the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS S proteins take up their ‘pre-fusion’ configuration, even without being part of the whole virus. This works because Proline is a very rigid amino acid. It acts as a kind of splint, stabilising the protein in the state we need to show to the immune system. > The people that discovered this should be walking around high-fiving themselves incessantly. Unbearable amounts of smugness should be emanating from them. And it would all be well deserved. [0] https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source...
- MarcoZavala 3y ago
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deleted 3y ago
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zer00eyz 3y ago
MRNA's for aggressive cancers are going to do some amazing things. This is one example of "death sentence" cancer being stopped cold. To that end, the trade offs for MRNA's make complete sense. It's a great place to do long terms studies and see what happens down stream. What covid did prove out is that there IS risk. https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-for-providers/clinical-guidance/tts https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-... Biologics (what vaccines are) are weird. The FDA should be stepping back from restricting the use of these on INFORMED patients who have limited other choices and mandating the long term study that we need for this class of treatments. IF were extending peoples lives and finding those secondary a tertiary risks in patents who would have otherwise died we will all benefit in the long run. Between Pro and Anti vax camps it is dam near impossible to have a rational conversation about the topic. One more thing that has been polarized into the abyss... sigh!
- jijijijij 3y ago
  The AstraZeneca vaccine mentioned in your link is not mRNA based.
- defrost 3y ago
  > What covid did prove out is that there IS risk. Not an mRNA vaccine and vaccine risk regardless of vaccine type was known and acknowledged for many decades before COVID.
- soco 3y ago
  We had a nice discussion here, you had your arguments, got the few mistakes pointed out, all factual, civilized and nice. Nobody called you sheep, antiamerican, or puppet of the global government. So let's not bring the anti-vax "polarization" into this, because the two camps are simply not the same. Edit: I have yet to see such a rational discussion with an anti-vax. Won't say it cannot happen, but to me it's like bigfoot.
  - happens 3y ago
    If the were able to have that kind of discussion with you on the pros and cons of vaccines, would you still perceive them as antivax?
deleted 3y ago
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_w1tm 3y ago
> This type of treatment sounds amazing, and I know mRNA vaccines were in development for a long time before COVID, but I have to wonder if this research would have taken a lot longer to happen had COVID not happened. At least BioNTech was able to take the billions they made from pivoting into COVID vaccines and use the money to speed up their cancer-related pipelines. Running clinical studies is expensive and difficult to do if you have to beg for money for an unproven platform.

Terr_ 3y ago

That reminds me of a piece about the "source code" of one of the mRNA vaccines [0], which had an amusing bit showcasing how one kind of pre-pandemic research was hugely important in preparing the necessary tools for when they were needed: > It turns out that, unmodified, freestanding Spike proteins collapse into a different structure. If injected as a vaccine, this would indeed cause our bodies to develop immunity... but only against the collapsed spike protein. > And the real SARS-CoV-2 shows up with the spiky Spike. The vaccine would not work very well in that case. > So what to do? In 2017 it was described how putting a double Proline substitution in just the right place would make the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS S proteins take up their ‘pre-fusion’ configuration, even without being part of the whole virus. This works because Proline is a very rigid amino acid. It acts as a kind of splint, stabilising the protein in the state we need to show to the immune system. > The people that discovered this should be walking around high-fiving themselves incessantly. Unbearable amounts of smugness should be emanating from them. And it would all be well deserved. [0] https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source...

MarcoZavala 3y ago
[dead]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

zer00eyz 3y ago

MRNA's for aggressive cancers are going to do some amazing things. This is one example of "death sentence" cancer being stopped cold. To that end, the trade offs for MRNA's make complete sense. It's a great place to do long terms studies and see what happens down stream. What covid did prove out is that there IS risk. https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-for-providers/clinical-guidance/tts https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/advice-... Biologics (what vaccines are) are weird. The FDA should be stepping back from restricting the use of these on INFORMED patients who have limited other choices and mandating the long term study that we need for this class of treatments. IF were extending peoples lives and finding those secondary a tertiary risks in patents who would have otherwise died we will all benefit in the long run. Between Pro and Anti vax camps it is dam near impossible to have a rational conversation about the topic. One more thing that has been polarized into the abyss... sigh!

jijijijij 3y ago
The AstraZeneca vaccine mentioned in your link is not mRNA based.
defrost 3y ago
> What covid did prove out is that there IS risk. Not an mRNA vaccine and vaccine risk regardless of vaccine type was known and acknowledged for many decades before COVID.
soco 3y ago
We had a nice discussion here, you had your arguments, got the few mistakes pointed out, all factual, civilized and nice. Nobody called you sheep, antiamerican, or puppet of the global government. So let's not bring the anti-vax "polarization" into this, because the two camps are simply not the same. Edit: I have yet to see such a rational discussion with an anti-vax. Won't say it cannot happen, but to me it's like bigfoot.
- happens 3y ago
  If the were able to have that kind of discussion with you on the pros and cons of vaccines, would you still perceive them as antivax?

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

_w1tm 3y ago

> This type of treatment sounds amazing, and I know mRNA vaccines were in development for a long time before COVID, but I have to wonder if this research would have taken a lot longer to happen had COVID not happened. At least BioNTech was able to take the billions they made from pivoting into COVID vaccines and use the money to speed up their cancer-related pipelines. Running clinical studies is expensive and difficult to do if you have to beg for money for an unproven platform.