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Quixote1818

(28,904 posts)
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 04:34 PM Jun 2020

Even a Vaccine Won't Erase this Pandemic

Thoughts on this?

And other tough, contrarian messages from virologist William Haseltine. We ignore them at our peril, he says.

Andrew Nikiforuk 3 Jun 2020 | TheTyee.ca


When William Haseltine told a group of fellow scientists in 1986 that an AIDS vaccine would be unlikely because of the difficult nature of the virus, he was booed off the stage. His colleagues even threw stuff at him.

“But we still don’t have a vaccine for AIDS,” he recently told Reuters. “We don’t know for sure that a [COVID-19] vaccine won’t be developed, but I can say with the same conviction — don’t count on it.”

In the last couple of weeks the virologist also has offered some jarring observations on the nature of the coronavirus, self-promotion by drug labs, the hazards of rapid reopenings and our global unpreparedness for what is yet to come.

He’s done so on his website and in a variety of interviews.

Besides being so unfortunately right about HIV, why else should we pay attention to what Haseltine is saying these days about COVID-19?

Start with his resume. A retired Harvard medical professor and a cancer/HIV researcher, Haseltine has been around the block a few times as both as hardcore researcher and biotech entrepreneur.

More:
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/06/03/Vaccine-Will-Not-Erase-Pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR2nWh-Gp8konWI19xs3OKE9p_1l_oZzhsF67g21vWwFH8jmIhoMUKW-JLc

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SoonerPride

(12,286 posts)
1. Beware of those who purvey premature hope.
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 04:40 PM
Jun 2020

Thanks for this. I appreciate it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what I've been saying since it started.

The adminitration and the president all try to sell us this idea that we are out of the woods or a vaccine is just around the corner.

A vaccine may NEVER come. And if one does it might be an annual shot like the flu vaccine.

This is a marathon. And we haven't even reached mile marker 1.

The end is nowhere even close to being on the horizon.

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
2. A vaccine for HIV is near impossible right now.
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 04:43 PM
Jun 2020

HIV targets the immune system directly. CV does not.

A vaccine for CV will be easier.

Quixote1818

(28,904 posts)
4. His point was that because it's a coronavirus similar to colds, the immunity probably won't last
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 05:27 PM
Jun 2020

very long. You can catch the same cold virus strain again and again. I wonder however if the second time you get it you have a mild cold? He didn't really cover that.

NutmegYankee

(16,178 posts)
5. Not the case for everyone.
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 05:31 PM
Jun 2020

Many won't be reinfected. The issue is not everyone gets sufficient antibodies. This is not new, which is why the anti-vaxer movement is starting to reintroduce childhood diseases.

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
6. All depends on the spike proteins on SARS-CoV-2.
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 05:41 PM
Jun 2020

That is the target area of any monoclonal antibody therapy or antibodies created by vaccinal stimulation.

If the virus can change those spike proteins to stop antibodies, yet maintain connectivity to ACE-2 receptors on cells, we are in for a very rough few years.

hlthe2b

(101,730 posts)
3. He is not wrong. He doesn't mention the specific Coronavirus-specific challenges, but they are there
Thu Jun 11, 2020, 04:46 PM
Jun 2020

We have animal vaccines against those Coronaviruses that are primarily enteric in their effects, but those that target the respiratory system have been mostly ineffective, though with some short term success in poultry.

The mutations already observed in SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 may have sufficient important changes to render vaccines in progress ineffective or poorly protective. Time will tell.

New techniques that have the promise of faster development, including m-RNA vaccines, likewise are focused on a very specific protein in the "spike" on the virus. If that protein ends up being poorly antigenic (inciting of the immune response) in comparison to other components of the binding site or the virus in general, we could be at risk of at best, a poorly protective vaccine, and at worst a trigger for a serious immune-mediated complication (immune enhancement)--a potentially life-threatening complicaton that took a once promising Dengue vaccine to a disastrous introduction.

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