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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

#421

Post by selcuka »

dragonwriter wrote: post #393
selcuka wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have trialled variant specific vaccines for both Delta and Omicron. It turned out that the original vaccine is as effective for Delta, so that work was shelved. Omicron, on the other hand, seems to be evading the immunity created by the Alpha vaccine, so they are actually planning to start producing an Omicron specific booster (or more correctly Alpha+Omicron) after FDA approval.

> They have trialled variant specific vaccines for both Delta and Omicron. It turned out that the original vaccine is as effective for Delta, so that work was shelved. No, it wasn't; in fact, the Pfizer-BioNtech Omicron variant-specifc vaccine and booster trial was announced only a week ago, while Novavax plans to begin testing an Omicron-specific vaccine imminently. https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-re…

> No, it wasn't

I said "for Delta". If you read the rest of my comment I mentioned the upcoming Omicron vaccine too.

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

#422

Post by grayfaced »

rzz3 wrote: post #400
im3w1l wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can do it this fast and this safely for COVID, we should do the same for this disease.

Efficacy trials are quick for a disease with 100k infections a day. It's much slower for something that has that many cases a year. It's much harder to tell a statistical difference from noise when you're talking minuscule cases in trial groups.

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

#424

Post by copperx »

feupan wrote: post #390
vymague wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, the fact that 4 STDs are incurable still frightens me.

HIV, HPV, herpes, what’s the fourth one? At least for HPV there’s a vaccine though.

Hepatitis C. Although there's a cure for a large percentage of cases, it's still not a cure for everyone.

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

#425

Post by s1artibartfast »

miked85 wrote: post #353
s1artibartfast wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Men who have sex with men are vastly more likely to get HIV, but account for a minority of the annual infections globally. [1] Sex workers and customers make up a larger percent of infections. Most HIV infections occur in women opposed to men. I don't find the language particularly offensive, but I cant imagine them replacing LGBTQ+ in the sentence with sex workers. Then again, this is a publication for lbtq audience…

The pie chart in your link seems a bit suspect, there is a lot of overlap with the groups included.

I thought so too and tried to check the sources, which were a mess. I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say they are probably in the ballpark

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

#426

Post by inasio »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #167
dillondoyle wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And undetectable === untransmittable. Just in case people here didn't know.

I didn't know this. Could you explain the reason?

Undetectable sometimes means less than 200 or less than 50 viral copies per ml (depending on device sensitivity). In contrast the peak in the acute phase is 10^7 copies per ml (and settles to around 10^5 in the chronic phase), the probability of transmission is infinitesimal. There are many studies following very high risk cohorts (sex workers, intravenous drug users, etc) that have been able to empirically confirm this.

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

#427

Post by jjeaff »

selcuka wrote: post #377
outworlder wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One single employee at Pfizer created 10 vaccine candidates in one day. > Now, the thing is that you can’t just sequence a virus, do bioinformatics, synthesize mRNA and package it into a nano particle. You can, and that's exactly what was done. However, out of the 10 or so candidates, they selected a few of the more promising ones to continue research. They are fast to develop. However, there are other steps in the p…

> If we were reckless and just wanted to inject someone with the latest update, this could be done in a matter of days. Human trials took months and people still complained that it was 'developed too quickly'. Then there's logistics. I'm sure there is also the commercial concerns about cannibalising their own product. Would you take the 1-strain BioNTech vaccine if you knew that a 5-strain is also in circulation?

By that time, I'm sure they will have switched to the monthly subscription model. Unlimited vaccines anytime you want only $9.49 month*

*when paid annually

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

#428

Post by dnautics »

mlyle wrote: post #320
dnautics wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "these are not the antibodies most humans develop in response to HIV." In many cases. One case, for example was identified from a prostitute in sub-saharan africa who managed to be completely HIV-free. It turned out she had a mutation in her antibodies that caused the antibodies to latch onto things with four sites instead of just 2 (think X shaped instead of V shaped).

That's why I said "most humans". bnAbs are generally antibodies that are detected in (few) humans. In addition to the people with seeming immunity through missing receptors or unusual antibody morphology, there's also about 1 in 200 infected that are "elite controllers" that do not develop high viral loads or severe symptoms when infected by HIV-- generally in large part to their bodies making multiple bnAbs.

I wasn't contradicting you, I was adding more specifics.

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

#429

Post by raducu »

dillondoyle wrote: post #136
aleks224 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>An "elite controller" is a person living with HIV who is able to maintain undetectable viral loads for at least 12 months despite not having started antiretroviral therapy (ART) . Elite controllers are rare: for every two hundred people living with HIV, approximately one may be an elite controller (0.5%). > It is not entirely understood why some patients are able to achieve undetectable viral loads without ART. http…

And undetectable === untransmittable. Just in case people here didn't know.

> And undetectable === untransmittable. Just in case people here didn't know.

In no way saying this is not a good thing, but do we know if this can be sustained for the whole lifetime?

Or is it that 20, 30 years later, as people get older the person eventually gets AIDS?

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

#430

Post by dragonwriter »

selcuka wrote: post #421
dragonwriter wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have trialled variant specific vaccines for both Delta and Omicron. It turned out that the original vaccine is as effective for Delta, so that work was shelved. No, it wasn't; in fact, the Pfizer-BioNtech Omicron variant-specifc vaccine and booster trial was announced only a week ago, while Novavax plans to begin testing an Omicron-specific vaccine imminently. https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-re…

> No, it wasn't I said "for Delta". If you read the rest of my comment I mentioned the upcoming Omicron vaccine too.

> said "for Delta".

You said, well, exactly what I quoted, which was that variant-specific vaccines for Delta and Omicron were tried, found less effective than the the existing vaccines, and abandoned. That is false.

> I mentioned the upcoming Omicron vaccine too.

No, you said that after abandoning Delta/Omicron variant-specific vaccines, “they” decided to work on mixed Omicron/Alpha boosters. That is also false. Novavax is planning to trial Omicron-specific vaccine. Pfizer is trialing Omicron specific vaccines, both as sole vaccines and as boosters after existing vaccines. Moderna is, I think, working on an Omicron-specific booster-only (after existing vaccines) approach.

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