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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

#121

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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?

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That is fine if you think things would have worked out better if we just treated Covid like another strain of the flu. 99% of ER Doctors disagree with you. If you think their opinion doesn't matter, that is fine too, but I don't see why I should ignore their opinions and agree with yours.

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

#122

As I understand it, the reason an HIV vaccine has been so difficult to create is that HIV mutates so easily. I understand the basics behind how mRNA vaccines are generated, but I don't understand why this approach would be expected to have any more success in evading the high mutation potential of HIV than other vaccine types. After all, it was even a concern with new coronavirus variants that the original Moderna va…

One reason is that mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster than traditional vaccines. So the idea is you have a better chance of "outrunning" a strain.

We get a new flu vaccine every year, is this much different?

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

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because the point he's making is wrong. Vaccines are doing a fantastic job at slowing down the progression of the virus which is key to keep mutations at bay. No vaccine is 100% effective, but even 80% effectiveness radically changes the dynamic of a pandemic, it's so easy to see that I don't understand what can lead someone to deny this fact besides bad faith.

I think you may want to revisit your 80%. The vaccine efficacy for sterilization of the virus ended up dropping more quickly than expected and that's even with pre-Delta variants. Look at the Israel data. When you don't understand, I suspect what you are encountering isn't bad faith actors, but more informed people.

But here you're talking about efficacy against infection and mild disease, which is not so relevant if we're talking about preventing new strains. New strains are thought to evolve in immunocompromised people with high viral loads over long periods of time, which allows both many mutations to occur as well as for those mutations to become dominant. So I believe the question should be to what extent the vaccines help prevent serious disease in people with comorbidities - and the answer is that they help to a great extent (whether 70% or 90%).

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

#125
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason is that mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster than traditional vaccines. So the idea is you have a better chance of "outrunning" a strain.

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Seems to be an okay strategy for software…

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

#126
post #84

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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.

Absolutely no issue. I was just wondering how we would possibly approach it. And got my answer! Thanks.

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

#127

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I would be happy if they cured cancer.

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Industries cannibalizing themselves through competition is very common.

If pharma was a monopoly, then they wouldn't want to cure cancer. But pharma isn't a monopoly, so the incentive then is to reduce the size of the pie as long as they get to eat the entire pie themselves.

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

#128

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I would be happy if they cured cancer.

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It's a cute common conspiracy theory but it doesn't really hold up. Modern pharma is making progress all the time. E.g. as shown, an HIV vaccine.

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

#129

As I understand it, the reason an HIV vaccine has been so difficult to create is that HIV mutates so easily. I understand the basics behind how mRNA vaccines are generated, but I don't understand why this approach would be expected to have any more success in evading the high mutation potential of HIV than other vaccine types. After all, it was even a concern with new coronavirus variants that the original Moderna va…

One reason is that mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster than traditional vaccines. So the idea is you have a better chance of "outrunning" a strain.

> One reason is that mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster than traditional vaccines. So the idea is you have a better chance of "outrunning" a strain.

Is that why the response to Delta was "just take another dose of the original formulation" and the response to Omicron was "just take another dose of the original formulation until we have the new one made up in a few months"? And who doesn't see another strain taking over in the next few months, rendering this new formulation less effective than originally promised?

My math may be off but there's been exactly one new Covid vaccine formulation in a little over a year, which is about how fast we crank out new flu vaccine formulations. Why exactly did we need to use mRNA tech to crank out new vaccines at the same speed as we did with traditional vaccines?

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

#130

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.

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