Next year, there's going to be Kits sold on craigslist and eBay for do it yourself at home Anti-virus vaccine manufacturing — and after that you'll be seeing it on late night TV I am – "as seen on TV"!
Flu kills thousands a year, yet many refuse a vaccine on the long-debunked claim that it will give you the flu. Yes its not perfect, but definitely preferable than doing nothing.
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Australian Researchers have replicated the Coronavirus in laboratory conditions in a breakthrough that could speed up the development of a vaccine.Scientists from Melbourne's Dougherty Inst have grown the first copy of the virus outside China.University of Queensland has has been given the mission to create a vaccine in 6 mths.
Pretty impressive.Qld has a method of making millions of vaccines very quickly.
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@Jackie That's is wonderful news. Question is: how fast does it mutate and can a vaccine cover it?
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Interesting that everyone is now looking to scientists for help, while many discount their expertise with regard to climate change. By extension, the climate change deniers might say "We aren't yet sure that coronavirus is the cause; let's wait to take action." Another analogous argument would be "We can't afford the loss of all the hospital and funeral home jobs that a coronavirus vaccine would cause." Fortunately, in contrast with many other governmental service organizations, the National Institutes of Health has not yet been trashed and is on the job.
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From the article: “We probably need to start thinking about putting in a special infrastructure for coronavirus infections the same way we have for the flu,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, who is co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and was involved in the production of a SARS vaccine that may be repurposed for the new coronavirus. The detection and monitoring of infections, as well as the development of vaccines, will put an insurance policy in place for future outbreaks, he said.
The above is a key needed step by world health organizations, and they need to collaborate openly to do so.. because virus' know no national boundaries, nor cultural bias.
Hopefully the nut in the white house does not interfere with health organizations working to squelch this latest novel coronavirus. It would be just like him to try to weaponize the process for personal political gain.
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DARPA announced, in 2017, a project to stop a pandemic in 60 days. interesting to learn if that is now operartional-relevant https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2017-02-06a
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And when people yell about "Big Pharma" and obscene profits - this is what needs to be remembered - profits on one successful drug go to the research for all the unsuccessful ones, for the attempt to create a vaccine - like the vaccine for SARS that was created but not used - that might never be used if the epidemic is controlled.
There are problems in the pharma business, but there is also a lot of nuance.
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Or not, many pharma companies slash their entire research and development divisions for shareholder profits and just focus on marketing. Giving more money to these companies does not mean they will be better prepared for a pandemic outbreak.
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@Garrett Not to mention the advertising budget usually exceeds drug development costs; yet, it can only be prescribed by a physician who is already 'advertised' to.
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@SusanStoHelit
My understanding of this story was that the pharmaceutical companies did this research with government grants.
It's possible to have the government do its own research, as it did with NASA, or it's possible to contract the work out to for-profit researchers.
There are advantages to both approaches, but government-run research programs have done well in the past, and for critical risks like this, we might be better off shifting the balance a little more to the NASA model.
I'd be interested to know who owns the rights to the technology developed from this government-funded research.
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To adapt a quote from The Dark Knight, “35,000 people a year die from the flu and nobody bats an eye. But one exotically named virus kills a few people in China and everybody loses their minds.”
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The world is experiencing a panic attack. This is why I believe chimps, apes and gorillas as well as dogs are a higher life form even if they don’t have iPhones.
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So there are two pieces of good news to notice. The vaccine will be ready in 3-6 months unless the government decide to put it through all the efficacy hoops before it gets deployed. Second the transmission rates are not that big (each diagnosed patient infect an average of only 2.6 people, even though they can go undiagnosed and infective for up to 2 weeks). The combination of a slow epidemic and a fast vaccine should make this more like SARS and less like the bubonic plaque.
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@Ivan Hope your right but they are still learning things about this disease. Some of the stories coming out of China are horrendous.
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The January 2018 study for MERS that is referenced is not for a vaccine, but rather for an antibody-based treatment.
First MERS vaccine in people was a DNA vaccine that was found to be safe and produce a good antibody response. This was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in September 2019.
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As a scientist, a pandemic’s spread is fascinating to watch, even though I and people whom I know and love could end up being its victims.
But, in this instance, the virus *bug* has plainly gone global, it can be transmitted by an asymptomatic vector (i.e., no outward signs of the disease in the infectious person; nice evolutionary step, virus), and we have no targeted vaccines to counter the bug.
Perhaps this is that particular Horseman of the Apocalypse we humans have been imagining for centuries. It is coming, sooner or later.
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@LynnBob
Not sure I would say this virus has "gone global". So far not a single death outside of China. It also seems that outside of China the number of transmissions from patients to uninfected people is very very low. Can it really be a horseman if there is no horse?
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@LynnBob has the CDC verified it has asymptomatic transmission?
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@LynnBob
That's rather unscientific over the top doom and gloom for a disease that is not all that extreme - nor unique.
Tons of viruses can be spread by an asymptomatic vector - it's so well known that it's cliche (Typhoid Mary). And why imagine that the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming sooner or later? Says who, the scientist should ask.
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Having a working vaccine would be good. However you will have the idiots who refuse vaccines because its a 'conspiracy by big pharma'. Or worse, it will harm their 'precious bodily fluids'.
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@Rocket J Squrriel
Two words; natural selection.
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If the 2019-nCoV virus has a high mutation rate, an effective vaccine may be difficult to produce, just like HIV which still has no vaccine against it despite having good animal models in primates. I hope that better anti-viral drugs are developed assuming the current anti-virals don't work. Perhaps that will decrease the mortality rate, making this coronavirus more like the common cold.
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@AGoldstein I believe a Chinese doctor recommended using the anti-virals that HIV patients use. If they do, and make them in the huge quantities needed, that will drive the price way down.
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@Rocket J Squrriel Trump is already thinking about the tariff for this one. He might then come to like Obamacare as there will be a payment source too!
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