Any thoughts on whether MRNA is a good stock to buy? They seem to be killing it these days...
Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
61–70 of 236 posts
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it's very difficult to predict which are going to be the dominant strains so they take a best guess, include the several candidates that they expect to be most virulent that season and ship that as the "flu vaccine" that season. The hope is that with a much faster time from approval -> production, in theory we could reassess in October / December / February and vaccinate against the most virulent strains that a…
That would be an amazing world. What do regulators think of the "platform approval" concept, though? I can't imagine that this kind of approval currently exists under most governments' regulatory regimes for vaccines.
I think over the next 10 years governments, scientists, and businesses are going to be asking themselves how they can be prepared for the next pandemic. This will make governments more likely to approve a fast track for the mRNA platform, and popular support more likely to sway in favor of this.
If we had generic facilities that could produce any mRNA vaccines, and an mRNA vaccine approval process that takes 30 days then we could have had covid vaccines ready to go before March 2020, and those whole story looks very different.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some more detail in this article from July, they’re using mRNA to make the body produce virus like particles https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2020/novel-vaccine-induces-...
Any effective HIV vaccine would presumably cause false-positives to the HIV antibody tests. Recently an Australian COVID-19 vaccine candidate trial was halted due to participants developing antibodies to proteins in the vaccine that were taken from HIV genome, causing false-positive on a HIV test. [1] Such false-positives could easily be co-opted by anti-vaxxers especially in light of the the famous Soviet Union disi…
And could you blame people for being paranoid when the CIA have used vaccine programs for various purposes in the past.
Though they've apparently now stopped.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
We already have a Lyme disease vaccine. However, the manufacturer refuses to sell it for human use due to PR threats from conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately, creating vaccines is only half the battle. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/
I found that article very interesting, and think describing the pushback as PR threats from conspiracy theorists oversimplifies just a bit. Aa mentioned in the article, it's very possible the vaccine triggers a rare, genetically associated autoimmune disorder normally caused by Lyme disease. It was also released roughly concurrently with at least one vaccine that was legitimately withdrawn for safety reasons. Compare…
The argument I've always read is that it should be made available to people who live in areas with lots of ticks, not that it should be pushed on everyone.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very odd that dogs can get vaccinated for Lyme but not humans...
We can also have dogs "put to sleep" but not people. You can also keep a dog on a leash. If a dog dies, there's no need for a coroner's report. It's not _that_ odd that human and dog medicine are held to different levels of testing and safety.
> We can also have dogs "put to sleep" but not people.
It's not like this is without controversy; it's an active political battle.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#66Damn can you imagine? I never imagined that an HIV vaccine would be possible within my lifetime. Kind of reminds me of HepC. An older coworker told me how a friend killed himself back in the day for getting HepC from tainted blood (pretty much a death sentence at that time and it consumed him). But now it’s possible to CURE it and hopefully it’ll be the same for HIV soon. Fuck, science like this is amazing.
Just to be clear, a vaccine doesn't cure a disease. It prevents one from contracting it.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We already have a Lyme disease vaccine. However, the manufacturer refuses to sell it for human use due to PR threats from conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately, creating vaccines is only half the battle. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870557/
Isn't that exactly what the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is supposed to prevent, by isolating vaccine makers from liability in exchange for a 75-cent tax that funds a no-fault compensation program?
I expect that the fear here would be that it'd be a PR disaster for the manufacturer, not a legal/financial one.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some more detail in this article from July, they’re using mRNA to make the body produce virus like particles https://www.aidsmap.com/news/jul-2020/novel-vaccine-induces-...
Any effective HIV vaccine would presumably cause false-positives to the HIV antibody tests. Recently an Australian COVID-19 vaccine candidate trial was halted due to participants developing antibodies to proteins in the vaccine that were taken from HIV genome, causing false-positive on a HIV test. [1] Such false-positives could easily be co-opted by anti-vaxxers especially in light of the the famous Soviet Union disi…
> Global mandatory inoculations using a safe and effective HIV vaccine that causes false-positive results on HIV tests would be a field day for anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists everywhere.
There's no reason for it to be mandatory. It's not like COVID19 or the flu where it is often transmitted through casual contact. There is simply no reason to delay/halt an HIV vaccine for just causing an false positive on a test. As you said, any effective HIV vaccine will likely have this issue so pushing forward is the only option.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any effective HIV vaccine would presumably cause false-positives to the HIV antibody tests. Recently an Australian COVID-19 vaccine candidate trial was halted due to participants developing antibodies to proteins in the vaccine that were taken from HIV genome, causing false-positive on a HIV test. [1] Such false-positives could easily be co-opted by anti-vaxxers especially in light of the the famous Soviet Union disi…
> Global mandatory inoculations using a safe and effective HIV vaccine that causes false-positive results on HIV tests would be a field day for anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists everywhere. There's no reason for it to be mandatory. It's not like COVID19 or the flu where it is often transmitted through casual contact. There is simply no reason to delay/halt an HIV vaccine for just causing an false positive on a te…
Definitely. I'm sure the then-flawed antibody tests would be retired and replaced with PCR tests.
Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs
#70I am curious how a trial for the HIV vaccine will proceed in a world where PrEP is available.
The initial trials just need to establish that the vaccine is safe (no severe side effects) which could include those on PrEP and even those with no risk factor.
The larger, latter trial that needs to study efficacy could simply use a large population. While HIV transmission is much more rare outside of certain high risk groups, infection does occur through accidents or deviations in behavior (e.g an EMT gets a needle prick while trying to administer Narcan). It would take a larger population and longer study but it should still be able to reach statistical significance.