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Previous pandemics (most notably 1918 Spanish flu) have “disappeared” in the sense that they had either exhausted the pool of hosts and had no natural reservoir with which to fall back on or they mutated to become less deadly or less symptomatic.
The Spanish flu strain (H1N1) circulated as the common flu until 1957 when it was replaced by Asian flu in 1957 (H2N2). However, it reappeared briefly as the Russian flu in 1977.
Has there ever been an attempt to develop a vaccine against SARS or MERS? If so, what happened? Did it fail or was is just not needed anymore?
MERS vaccine development is ongoing, with promising canditates in human trials.
Of course, vaccinating the whole population might render those groups less likely to be infected (because of herd immunity) but still, it will involve vaccinating populations which have little risk from the disease with a vaccine that has been fast-tracked through the approval process.
This situation is a disaster.
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Serious question, how could it disappear? It seems like as long as there are people close enough to infect, it will infect them. There are cases in warm environments. What am I missing?
Previous pandemics (most notably 1918 Spanish flu) have “disappeared” in the sense that they had either exhausted the pool of hosts and had no natural reservoir with which to fall back on or they mutated to become less deadly or less symptomatic.
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Obviously not, but why would it do that? It's already spread in a way that none of the other SARS variants have, which invalidates that part of the analogy.
Global natural herd immunity could suppress the disease cases to next to nothing. The problem is there's a very high price to pay before we get there.
Question: if the virus completely dissapears in a few months, like other SARS variant, should we vaccinate the world population ?
Maybe in one specific scenario, though. If the vaccine seems to have negative effects, and if the disease seems to have petered out on its own, then we could manufacture enough vaccine, then be ready to give it out if/when another outbreak happens.
Given the ages and health conditions of the dead, what is the chance that a vaccine will do any good to them? Remember that the flu vaccine is of very dubious effectiveness on those aged 65+. Of course, vaccinating the whole population might render those groups less likely to be infected (because of herd immunity) but still, it will involve vaccinating populations which have little risk from the disease with a vaccin…
The CDC still recommends vaccines for the elderly:
Because of age-related changes in their immune systems, people 65 years and older may not respond as well to vaccination as younger people. Although immune responses may be lower in the elderly, studies have consistently found that flu vaccine has been effective in reducing the chance of medical visits and hospitalizations associated with flu.
Has there ever been an attempt to develop a vaccine against SARS or MERS? If so, what happened? Did it fail or was is just not needed anymore?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Previous pandemics (most notably 1918 Spanish flu) have “disappeared” in the sense that they had either exhausted the pool of hosts and had no natural reservoir with which to fall back on or they mutated to become less deadly or less symptomatic.
How does mutating eradicate the non-mutated individuals?