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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

#431

Post by xeromal »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #280
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes there are multiple efforts with that one being I think the most promising. They hope to cure the first humans of HSV in 2024. I believe they have all the funding they need for now, having raised over $500k. More details on this subreddit and specifically this sticky: https://www.reddit.com/r/HerpesCureResearch/comments/kg66ds/...

It's interesting how small some of those grants and funding pools are compared to what you see in startup land. Maybe this is just the economics of viral research, but you'd think that with plenty of people out there willing to pay to cure themselves of HSV, or prevent it, there would be more financial support. Yet, the people working on the problem have as much funding as the YC Standard Deal announced this month. I…

Yeah, after seeing game studios being bought for 64B dollars, how many HSVs could that cure?

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

#432

Post by lamontcg »

wolverine876 wrote: post #414
lamontcg wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. There are about 5 different false assertions in here with nothing to back them up. The Israelis have found that a 4th shot isn't particularly useful in immocompetent healthy younger adults under 65. We're…

Another reason the vaccines didn't stop the virus is that not enough people got vaccinated. > The newspapers never should have sold vaccines as a way to stop the virus in its tracks. Which newspapers? It's easy to take shots at 'the media' (or equivalent).

Well it wasn't virologists or epidemiologists.

Might have included a certain cardiologist on Twitter, but the notion is out there somehow and it didn't come from the scientists who know what they were talking about.

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

#433

Post by CorrectHorseBat »

f6v wrote: post #56
spamizbad wrote: post #17

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.

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…

As I understand it delta boosters have been tested, but were not more effective than a normal booster.

Omicron has only been discovered in November and booster trials are still ongoing.

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

#434

Post by jagger27 »

space_fountain wrote: post #205
Drdrdrq wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To reiterate the question, why is that?

I'm not a biologist and this is based on general knowledge and some quick google searches but: We're quite good at detecting viruses if we really want to. PCR can amplify DNA so much that we can detect even 50 viruses per milliliter of blood. A milliliter seems like actually a lot of blood to get into someone else and your innate immune system is capable of finding and neutralizing small amounts of contagions relativ…

> A milliliter seems like actually a lot of blood to get into someone else

1 cm^3 is indeed pretty big. That’s 1,000 little millimetre cubes, and we can detect as few as 50 virions in that space!

I will point out though that 1 ml is low for semen (more like 2.5 ml or more).

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

#435

Post by bradlys »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #219
baristavibes wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in that no straight people (that i know) consider PrEP, although according to a quick search the HIV prevalence rate is twenty times lower in my country compared to the US. Obviously the human brain statistician goes out the window when comparing a lifelong illness with a few hours of discomfort, but would it be generally safe/worth it to put the entire population on PrEP during sexual activity? I heard that…

As a person on PrEP, it is only recommended for people at higher risk of HIV. In the West, that does not include sexually active straight people unless you have other confounding factors (e.g. IV drug use, partners who are at higher risk, etc.). Essentially all gay men (or, more accurately, "men who have sex with men") are at higher risk, which is why it is recommended for them.

Gay men living in cities also have many more sexual partners than the rest of the populous.

The men I’ve met who have had 1000+ partners is exclusive to gay men. I’ve yet to meet a straight man who isn’t a celebrity that has gotten anywhere near that. Yet this order of magnitude (100-1000) is common among gay men.

The risk levels for your average young straight man in the west are obscenely low these days. You’ll have sex with maybe 10 people in your entire life if you’re a try hard. Chances are astronomically low for most straights - especially if you practice safe sex until both parties are tested and monogamous.

Straight people aren’t concerned because they’re simply not having that many sexual partners.

Less than 10% of all male HIV cases came from having sex with a woman. Yet men who have sex with women are 95%+ of the population. There’s a risk but it’s really low. And I think it’s even lower now with the ways things are going - straight male millennials and zoomers are having less sex than any generation before it that we know of.

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

#436

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

> The slow part is the safety testing right?

No, the slow part is the efficacy testing.

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

#437

Post by refurb »

wolverine876 wrote: post #415
refurb wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s ridiculous since SJS and TENS can happen with pretty much any drug. And fatal anaphylactic reactions to vaccines aren’t atypical.

How is atypical defined? They are very rare for the COVID-19 vaccines.

So is SJS and TENS.

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

#438

Post by f6v »

arcticbull wrote: post #332
xienze wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a lot easier to get folks to agree to one or two shots one time Is it gonna be “one or two shots one time” like the Covid vaccine was initially pitched or ...

Why on earth do people get all uppity about the COVID vaccine requiring multiple shots? Basically every vaccine you've ever had (and you've likely had a lot ) required 2, 3, 4 or even periodic shots for your entire life. - Flu. Twice per year until age 9 then one per year, forever. - Td, one dose every 10 years, forever. - Tdap, 4 doses. - Pneumococcal, 2 doses. - Rotavirus, 2 or 3 doses. - Meningitis, 2 doses. - MMR…

Don’t get me wrong, I got my 3 Covid shots. But that’s within 6 months. No other vaccine is that frequent.

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

#439

Post by austhrow743 »

jl6 wrote: post #249
lixtra wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t sample all parts and all fluids of someone’s body all the time. Maybe trace undetectable levels of the virus can be transmitted… You don’t need to be a 100% sure. Once the risk becomes small enough you can spend your time worrying about other risks.

Now that may be entirely the right posture, but the triple equals signs in the post upthread did rather imply certainty.

I took that to just be because we’re on a programmer heavy site rather than an extreme display of certainty

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

#440

Post by f6v »

lamontcg wrote: post #380
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. There are about 5 different false assertions in here with nothing to back them up. The Israelis have found that a 4th shot isn't particularly useful in immocompetent healthy younger adults under 65. We're…

It seems you’re debunking the claims I’ve never made. My point was that it doesn’t matter that mRNA vaccine can be developed extremely fast compared to others, like adenovirus-based. The logistics and production will even it out.
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