https://www.slowboring.com/p/we-coul...covid-vaccinesCOVID will very likely continue to mutate and cause problems until we create vaccines that inhibit transmission (which probably means nasal/mucosal membrane vaccines) and vaccines that confer better overall immunity across all COVID-19 variants.2
There are plenty of groups working on this, including Akiko Iwasaki’s lab at Yale, David Veesler’s at University of Washington, and Pamela Bjorkman’s at Caltech. Nature surveyed some more efforts a few months ago.
The basic strategy for pan-variant protection is pretty clear: most involve some kind of “nanoparticle” that embeds parts of different e proteins that will cause the immune system to prefer the parts that remain unchanged across different coronavirus variants. (“Highly conserved epitopes.”) Current vaccines use the full e protein, which means that the immune system indexes on fairly random parts of the e, including parts that might change quickly.
We already have quite good evidence that such approaches can work based on initial mouse and non-human primate data, where robustly protective responses have been generated against a broad variety of sarbecoviruses. (The virus that causes COVID is part of this family.) Furthermore, the underlying nanoparticle platform used in one group’s work, David Veesler’s nanoparticle-based vaccine, has been validated in humans, and just finished a successful Phase 3 trial in South Korea. (The nanoparticle in this trial used a part of the e protein from the original COVID strain, and isn’t itself a pan-variant vaccine.) But simply embedding slightly different proteins on its surface stands an excellent chance of conferring much broader protection.
We (Fast Grants) are in touch with a number of these groups. Despite excellent technology and promising early results in animal models, we estimate that the very earliest we will have access to these vaccines in humans is 2024. These groups need to run primate trials, then run human clinical trials, and then ramp manufacturing and distribution. Beyond having to jump through a lot of hoops, we’ve observed that they’re frequently tripped up by stupid things outside of their control, any one of which may hold their work back by months. (One group’s monkeys have been delayed by US Customs, which will push the start of their primate trial back ‘till September. Another is struggling to obtain necessary adjuvants. Multiple groups are unable to get access to current mRNA vaccines for research purposes because of legal barriers.) All groups we’ve interacted with are underfunded compared to what would be ideal.
Broadly speaking, the holdups involve some combination of logistical challenges and regulatory requirements, and the intersection between both. (You don’t in principle have to run a primate trial, but the FDA makes it harder to run a human trial if you don’t. You don’t in principle need to use “acute infection” as a trial endpoint; you could also use neutralizing antibody ers, which would be much faster and simpler.)
To speed things up:
- We should lower the barrier for human clinical trials and use simpler endpoints. For many vaccine candidates, we could run human trials concurrent with primate trials (once basic safety data has been obtained). In humans, we don’t need to repeat Phase I trials for platforms that have already been validated and derisked. (In this vein, the FDA’s recent announcement about not requiring trials for updated platforms was encouraging.)
- We should help these groups to scale manufacturing faster. Operation Warp Speed itself cost $10 billion; a second incarnation, with a tenth of that budget, could almost certainly accomplish a great deal.​
Overall, we the federal government should empower someone to intervene (as it did with Operation Warp Speed). Private actors can’t change FDA policy. In our view it is probably true that, with competent execution, we could roll out pan-variant COVID vaccines before the end of 2022. Actually making that happen would require significant and coordinated logistical, regulatory, and administrative action. However, it would by no means be impossible. Not having pan-variant vaccines in 2022 is best thought of as a choice.
To save lives and alleviate the burden of sickness and disability for individuals and businesses?
It's a no brainer, that's exactly what your ikon Trump did.
What were the CARES Act, the PPP and Operation Warp Speed?
There's never going to be a sterilizing covid vaccine, it's not possible. You're going to have to get your sniffles, repeatedly.
So long as the jab keeps me out of the hospital and the graveyard, I'm cool with that. I'm in no rush to get it, though, and will continue to take reasonable precautions to avoid getting sick. If you wash your hands or sterilize food prep surfaces at home, I'm sure you can relate.
Is there some reason in your mind that we shouldn't take COVID at least as seriously as we do the flu, from a public health standpoint?
Btw, the dreaded circuit breaker lockdown of 2020 was instigated by states and cities under federal advisement. The Trump Administration advised the states to do it, passing along the pandemic response wisdom developed under GWB.
Lockdowns were pioneered by Republicans in the US.
A group of dad's discovered air purifiers move air...genius.
more schools should try it, tbh
They'll need another couple hundred billion dollars first
sounds great
Where'd you get that number? PFA?
We got our Flu Shot every fall and forgot that it existed, tbh.
Same should be done with covid, imo.
good luck with that. reality is that which, when you wish it gone, remains.
Acting like flu is nbd is more or less brain dead. We have a multi-billion dollar public health apparatus to deal with it every single year.
how about physical fitness?
You take risk every time you get in your car and drive to destination __X__.
People dying from the flu are elderly and/or immunocompromised. You probably have a better chance of drowning in your own bathtub than dying from the flu.
Omicron's death rate seems to be comparable to the flu as well.
Sure, life isn't risk free, thanks for the news flash.
While Omicron's ifr might be similar to flu, the contagiousness isn't remotely comparable. Rampant infection has led to ~200,000 deaths from Omicron since December.
Chicago raised practically the whole damn city on jackscrews to install a sewer system -- because of repeated cholera and typhoid epidemics -- but go ahead, explain how engineers can't retrofit buildings for cleaner air in 2022.
(It actually wasn't quite that simple, the sewer system created problems of its own that tunnels were built to alleviate, but sluicing sewage into the Mississippi created problems downstream, as well as liability problems for Chicago, that weren't solved until about 50 years later, when water treatment plants were built. The point is, there was an engineering solution, and though the path was arduous and the expense was vast, it was worth it. The result was a healthier, thriving populace and one of the first great, modern US cities.)
Tested negative yesterday, just 1 week after I first felt symptoms and tested positive.
IMO antivirals that are widely circulated and easily available will be what gets us fully out of the pandemic.
But what about long term effects or the possibility of dying from a brain tumor? There's still that. You're not out of the woods on this.
True. I stayed up all night sitting in the corner with nothing but a flashlight and a handgun worrying about long COVID.
Boiled down:::
1,048,000 Americans dead in the ground.
& counting...
as
"I will shut it down." Biden
squats in the White House.
7.12.2022
~~~~~~~~~
& the beat goes on!!!
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