5 ms·

> It is given as a nasal spray and leaves white blood cells in our lungs – called macrophages – on "amber alert" and ready to jump into action no matter what in

> It is given as a nasal spray and leaves white blood cells in our lungs – called macrophages – on "amber alert" and ready to jump into action no matter what infection tries to get in. Right and if that is such a good thing why are those macrophages not always on alert. I smell longterm cancer or similar.

amelius 8mo ago
Or antimicrobial resistance.
LeoPanthera 8mo ago
If only Stanford University had asked you first!
- bob001 8mo ago
  If only you had read the article. >There may also be consequences to dialling up the immune system beyond its normal state – raising questions of immune disorders. > Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the work was undeniably "exciting" but cautioned "we have to ensure that keeping the body on 'high alert' doesn't lead to friendly fire, where a hyper-ready immune system accidentally triggers unwelcome side effects". > The research team in the US does not think the immune system should be permanently dialled up and think such a vaccine should be used to compliment rather than replace current vaccines.
  - mattmaroon 8mo ago
    They are behind a paywall for Americans now.
bob001 8mo ago
> I smell longterm cancer or similar. Or simply autoimmune reactions which can be devastating.
- nrds 8mo ago
  Indeed, I wonder whether the vaccine content matters at all in current vaccines. We could probably just inject people with the adjuvants and get the same result.
  - pavel_lishin 8mo ago
    Why not just eat a handful of dirt?
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - alphazard 8mo ago
    > I wonder whether the vaccine content matters at all in current vaccines. The target does matter, that is the basis for the whole technology, and the thing most predictive of efficacy. That's why the flu shots often don't work and the shots for smallpox and measles do, the flu is a more rapidly mutating target. Going crazy with the adjuvants was popular during the pandemic when it became clear that the virus had mutated (the target protein), but no one wanted to do R&D for a new target. Counting white blood cells became a proxy for efficacy, and you can manipulate that stat with adjuvants.
    - amluto 8mo ago
      There seem to be cases where the target really doesn’t matter, for example: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mrna-vaccines-and-immuno-oncology-good-news https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mrna-vaccines-and-...
  - rustyhancock 8mo ago
    The content clearly matters, and efficacy is tracked (this year it was poor because the eventual pandemic flu strain was a H3N2 virus which mutate rapidly)[0]. This was despite WHO updating the recommendations at the last hour in April/May 2025. But critically this isn't as important as people think. The primary goal of the flu vaccination is of course to temper spread of the main viruses that season. But it's also to build people's immune library of exposure to flu viruses. Recall that the 1918 "Spanish" flu was so terrible not because it was intrinsically a worse virus but that it was one which many younger generations had not been previously exposed. COVID has meant that many younger generations again has a much smaller library of past exposure. [0] https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-vaccines/estimated-effectiveness-season-s-flu-vaccine-against-medically-attended-illness https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-vaccines/estimated-effe...
b65e8bee43c2ed0 8mo ago
there are many, many things our bodies could do (or not do) to greatly improve our health at no cost whatsoever.
- bob001 8mo ago
  That we think have no cost. The massive failure rate of drug trials and some famous cases of issues discovered only after wide scale deployment indicates we're not that great at knowing ahead of time. The body is like legacy spaghetti code written by hundreds of teams of outsourced engineers. It mostly works. Just never remove any commented out lines or it may break.
  - cortesoft 8mo ago
    Our body was vibe coded
    - D-Coder 8mo ago
      A billion years of kludges.
- glial 8mo ago
  While possible, there are also many bodily processes that are finely tuned through eons of evolution, and destabilizing pressure leads to disorder. Sometimes it's difficult to know which are which (or at least I don't know).
- nradov 8mo ago
  Which things?
  - b65e8bee43c2ed0 8mo ago
    the most straightforward example off the top of my head would be that hair follicles have no conceivable reason to react to testosterone. removing DHT receptors from them would have no adverse effect whatsoever.
shiroiuma 8mo ago
This reminds me of an episode in Star Trek: TNG's 2nd season, where Pulaski and Data visit a colony doing genetic engineering experiments on kids which created a super-virus.
gdevenyi 8mo ago
Autoimmune disorders
marcosdumay 8mo ago
The most likely, because it consumes energy and respiratory diseases take almost nobody from the gene pool. What has no relation at all to what possible side effects this could have.
bsder 8mo ago
It would be nice to have a dosage that lasts a couple of days for when you're flying or attending a conference. That way, your immune system wouldn't be on continuous high alert, but you could give it an "Oy, wake up. Incoming pathogens." blast.
- jalapenos 8mo ago
  This. I don't think humans have evolved a brain - immune system pathway to prime the macrophage pump after you book a Ryanair.

amelius 8mo ago

Or antimicrobial resistance.

LeoPanthera 8mo ago

If only Stanford University had asked you first!

bob001 8mo ago
If only you had read the article. >There may also be consequences to dialling up the immune system beyond its normal state – raising questions of immune disorders. > Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the work was undeniably "exciting" but cautioned "we have to ensure that keeping the body on 'high alert' doesn't lead to friendly fire, where a hyper-ready immune system accidentally triggers unwelcome side effects". > The research team in the US does not think the immune system should be permanently dialled up and think such a vaccine should be used to compliment rather than replace current vaccines.
- mattmaroon 8mo ago
  They are behind a paywall for Americans now.

bob001 8mo ago

> I smell longterm cancer or similar. Or simply autoimmune reactions which can be devastating.

nrds 8mo ago
Indeed, I wonder whether the vaccine content matters at all in current vaccines. We could probably just inject people with the adjuvants and get the same result.
- pavel_lishin 8mo ago
  Why not just eat a handful of dirt?
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- alphazard 8mo ago
  > I wonder whether the vaccine content matters at all in current vaccines. The target does matter, that is the basis for the whole technology, and the thing most predictive of efficacy. That's why the flu shots often don't work and the shots for smallpox and measles do, the flu is a more rapidly mutating target. Going crazy with the adjuvants was popular during the pandemic when it became clear that the virus had mutated (the target protein), but no one wanted to do R&D for a new target. Counting white blood cells became a proxy for efficacy, and you can manipulate that stat with adjuvants.
  - amluto 8mo ago
    There seem to be cases where the target really doesn’t matter, for example: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mrna-vaccines-and-immuno-oncology-good-news https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mrna-vaccines-and-...
- rustyhancock 8mo ago
  The content clearly matters, and efficacy is tracked (this year it was poor because the eventual pandemic flu strain was a H3N2 virus which mutate rapidly)[0]. This was despite WHO updating the recommendations at the last hour in April/May 2025. But critically this isn't as important as people think. The primary goal of the flu vaccination is of course to temper spread of the main viruses that season. But it's also to build people's immune library of exposure to flu viruses. Recall that the 1918 "Spanish" flu was so terrible not because it was intrinsically a worse virus but that it was one which many younger generations had not been previously exposed. COVID has meant that many younger generations again has a much smaller library of past exposure. [0] https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-vaccines/estimated-effectiveness-season-s-flu-vaccine-against-medically-attended-illness https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-vaccines/estimated-effe...

b65e8bee43c2ed0 8mo ago

there are many, many things our bodies could do (or not do) to greatly improve our health at no cost whatsoever.

bob001 8mo ago
That we think have no cost. The massive failure rate of drug trials and some famous cases of issues discovered only after wide scale deployment indicates we're not that great at knowing ahead of time. The body is like legacy spaghetti code written by hundreds of teams of outsourced engineers. It mostly works. Just never remove any commented out lines or it may break.
- cortesoft 8mo ago
  Our body was vibe coded
  - D-Coder 8mo ago
    A billion years of kludges.
glial 8mo ago
While possible, there are also many bodily processes that are finely tuned through eons of evolution, and destabilizing pressure leads to disorder. Sometimes it's difficult to know which are which (or at least I don't know).
nradov 8mo ago
Which things?
- b65e8bee43c2ed0 8mo ago
  the most straightforward example off the top of my head would be that hair follicles have no conceivable reason to react to testosterone. removing DHT receptors from them would have no adverse effect whatsoever.

shiroiuma 8mo ago

This reminds me of an episode in Star Trek: TNG's 2nd season, where Pulaski and Data visit a colony doing genetic engineering experiments on kids which created a super-virus.

gdevenyi 8mo ago

Autoimmune disorders

marcosdumay 8mo ago

The most likely, because it consumes energy and respiratory diseases take almost nobody from the gene pool. What has no relation at all to what possible side effects this could have.

bsder 8mo ago

It would be nice to have a dosage that lasts a couple of days for when you're flying or attending a conference. That way, your immune system wouldn't be on continuous high alert, but you could give it an "Oy, wake up. Incoming pathogens." blast.

jalapenos 8mo ago
This. I don't think humans have evolved a brain - immune system pathway to prime the macrophage pump after you book a Ryanair.