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Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

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Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#101

Post by CommanderData »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #70

I wonder if we'll see HSV also addressed by this new wave of mRNA vaccines, or if it's just not top of mind for companies and researchers due to its "mostly benign" nature. At least until one's immune system starts to weaken with advanced age and it starts to cause all sorts of problems, but perhaps by then it gets swept under the "problems of aging" rug.

I have an interest in this too, with most of the worlds population infected with some type HSV and being linked to Alzheimer's disease, MS and many horrible disease.

It's about time we defeat HSV too!

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#102

Post by TameAntelope »

Pooge wrote: post #84
TameAntelope wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/stat... This info should give you a better idea of how one might compose a set of trial groups for something like this.

Thank you, this is a good resource! But in order to have a good approximation of the effectiveness, we would need people to get infected. If I simplify, I would get vaccinated and stop using protection (i.e. condoms) during intercourse, but then I may catch it and end up living for life with HIV (contrast to COVID where you still have fairly reasonable chances to recover from). How would trials work for things like t…

Not sure what the issue is. Tens of thousands of people get HIV each year; all you need to do is give some of them the vaccine and see if those people get HIV as much as the people you didn't give the vaccine to.

People are already getting infected, we don't need to do anything for that to continue to happen.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#103

Post by ipnon »

tacLog wrote: post #88
ipnon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me like lumping lesbians and the queer into this calculus is a little insensitive because it was almost exclusively gay men and trans women who bore the brunt. I'm sure this press release ran by a publicist who said, "we have to use all the letters or else we'll get torn to shreds on Twitter."

I get what your saying. But on the other hand we are just talking about celebrating this. I feel like those sub-communities are probably more aware of the impact HIV than the average cis straight person and are probably going to celebrate this as well. I don't get what's insensitive about it at all so maybe I am missing your point.

If we get down to brass tacks, this is a situation where sex takes precedence over gender. The HIV epidemic in the West was borne by XY people, and the history of HIV in America is by and large an XY history. What are we obfuscating by painting this history with a broadly "queer" brush?

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#104

Post by f6v »

vkou wrote: post #78
f6v wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think slowly will come the realization that mRNA vaccines aren’t as fast to develop as people thought. Sputnik/AstraZeneca vaccines were released almost at the same time as Moderna/Pfizer. Yes, the latter were first commercial mRNA vaccines, but the technology is nevertheless rather mature. I watched a lecture by the people credited with creating mRNA vaccines and it turns out people have been working on the techno…

> If mRNA vaccine was as magical as it was marketed, we wouldn’t be getting 3-4(and soon 5?) doses of the same vaccine with the emergence of new variants. Rather, there would be delta- and omicron-specific vaccine. Is this a problem with mRNA, a problem with the approval-for-vaccine-variants process, a problem with funding, or a problem with the politicians who thought COVID would magically go away by August 2021 (Ne…

What I’m trying to say is that mRNA vaccines might not be faster to deliver to market because you still need to go though testing and approval.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#105

Post by f6v »

im3w1l wrote: post #80
f6v wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think slowly will come the realization that mRNA vaccines aren’t as fast to develop as people thought. Sputnik/AstraZeneca vaccines were released almost at the same time as Moderna/Pfizer. Yes, the latter were first commercial mRNA vaccines, but the technology is nevertheless rather mature. I watched a lecture by the people credited with creating mRNA vaccines and it turns out people have been working on the techno…

The slow part is the safety testing right? If we had a robust enough theory of vaccines safety we could reduce that. How are the yearly flu shots tested anyway? Now, I would not take such a HIV shot. But for high risk groups, think promiscious homosexuals, it may eventually be worth it.

If we had robust enough theory of vaccine testing it wouldn’t matter what kind of vaccine you develop, right?

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#106

Post by Firmwarrior »

arcticbull wrote: post #93
epgui wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. I would rather take the "most unsafe" vaccine of the last 30 years than take an Advil. (I am a biochemist)

The one that really surprises me that people take like candy is Tylenol/Panadol/Paracetamol/Acetaminophen. It's the leading cause of acute liver failure in the US. Among common OTCs, its active dose is I believe the closest to its lethal dose. Just 2-3X the recommended daily upper limit can cause liver damage, and when taken around alcohol, the toxicity is dramatically higher. I strongly doubt that Acetaminophen woul…

I never really gave much thought to how dangerous this stuff was until a year or so ago, Eric Engstrom (one of the creators of DirectX and a personal hero of mine) accidentally overdosed and died from it:

> He died at a hospital in Seattle. His wife, Cindy Engstrom, said he had injured one of his feet in October, accidentally took too much Tylenol for pain relief and suffered liver damage.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25423712

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#107

Post by zionic »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #70

I wonder if we'll see HSV also addressed by this new wave of mRNA vaccines, or if it's just not top of mind for companies and researchers due to its "mostly benign" nature. At least until one's immune system starts to weaken with advanced age and it starts to cause all sorts of problems, but perhaps by then it gets swept under the "problems of aging" rug.

I think we need to do a much better job at wiping out these "mostly benign" viruses. I suspect we'll someday learn they drastically increase your cancer risk, like we did with HPV and male throat cancer.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#109

Post by hatware »

gitfan86 wrote: post #95
hatware wrote: post #77

Quoted post unavailable.

I don't follow your logic. Because Fauci, Trump, Biden said things that turned out to be false, new medicines can no longer be created? Or are you saying that new medicines can still be created, but you will not take them out of spite toward the lies told during the pandemic?

No post body was provided.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#110

Post by bobbyasdfasdf7 »

f6v wrote: post #63
emiliobumachar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely don't have any knowledge on the topic. Here are my crackpot opinions: 1) Maybe many or most infected have a single strain each, and a targeted vaccine to each's strain could work as a treatment, similarly to the tetanus and rabies vaccines. Even if not a full cure, could be a way to halt the disease progression with lower cost and side effects than the current treatments available. 2) HIV spreads relativ…

Regarding your second point, isn’t HIV a preventable disease? In the areas where the prevalence is in double digits, people don’t seem to be using condoms or taking other precautions. Why would they be taking vaccine every year?

getting a shot once a year is way easier than a very expensive pill every day (prep) or even using a condom every time you have sex.
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