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New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

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Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#81
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to understand the system you're criticizing a bit better before moving ahead and criticizing it

Perhaps. If you feel you have an understanding of the system I'm criticizing, why not help me understand why it has to be this way? I get it if you don't have the time or inclination to do so, but surprisingly I'm actually really open to learning new things and it would be appreciated not only by me but by other people reading your comments if you could explain the current system, perhaps other systems that have been…

I took an undergraduate course on the economics of science and technology. A large portion of it was devoted to patents.

The problem is generally that public funding accounts for extremely small amounts of the funding that it requires to take a drug to market. I didn't lookup any numbers for this, but I would guess it's very rarely above 1%.

The government could try to claim some share of the profits from drugs derived from research that was partially grant funded, but that seems logistically very difficult and not worth it. The government already gets a share through various taxes anyways.

The purpose of public research is to encourage innovation, which in turn benefits everyone. Private companies usually have no incentive to make any of their research public which can lead to many places repeating the same things.

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#82
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that we can mutate it into a corner because there are only so many shapes it can mutate into before it doesn't work and the virus can't get into cells.

I'm not sure about that. There are probably hundreds or thousands of still-viable mutations it might come up with at random, and we don't want to inject dozens of vaccine candidates to deal with them. Or maybe we do? A lot of adults have probably had a dozen or two dozen varying flu shots.

But aren't those still-viable mutations all relatively close to the existing ones which means that existing vaccines will work against it?

Like I was under the impression that there were relatively few novel configurations that it could evolve into which would evade vaccines, meaning that in theory a couple rounds of vaccines would be enough to beat it.

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#83
post #59
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are we sure it is a dead end and how sure are we? It sounds as if this would put extraordinary selective pressures on the virus, if we are wrong I’d fear we would just make things worse

How are we sure and how are we sure This is basic evolutionary theory that has been subsequently played out in both the lab and in the wild. You can't prove a negative but your requirement for reassurance will only be assuaged by furthering your own understanding of evolution on a molecular level, it doesn't seem like anything I could say to you in a reply to an internet post would make the slightest bit of differenc…

I actually asked ‘how sure are we’ - you’re right though, just saying - learn more about it - isn’t exactly helpful. If it is as ‘basic’ as you say maybe you could explain it rather than just appeal to authority.

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#85
post #78

From the article: The researchers have applied for patents on both the antibodies and the mouse model used to produce them. They hope to see their work developed commercially. ... followed by This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-021989), the National institutes of Health (NIAID Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development UM1-AI144371, P01 AI158571, Ma…

> a lifetime perpetual non-exclusive right to use and re-license said patent on what ever terms they deem acceptable. Probably the biggest immediate positive impact would be automatically securing the rights to produce and distribute the patented good in developing nations. BigCo isn’t making much money there anyway.

Economy of scale. You make little from a large population. Or you can go Nestle level evil and straight out exploit the most in need [1]. Plenty of ways for BigCo to make money of developing nations.

[1] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professionalism/The_Nestlé_Inf...

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#86
post #7

Can anyone with more knowledge on this topic than me (I’m no expert) assuage my fears: by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy. Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been infected now. Might we run the risk of making things worse…

> by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy That'd be a valid question if we didn't ready have non-live vaccines with very good proven track records for polio, hepatitis, the flu, etc. > Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been i…

Where did I deny Covid? I simply asked if stronger vaccines could lead to stronger viruses and make things worse than they already are

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#87
post #44
post #7

Can anyone with more knowledge on this topic than me (I’m no expert) assuage my fears: by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy. Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been infected now. Might we run the risk of making things worse…

> by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy I can put your fears to bed. That shouldn't happen. How vaccines work is they teach a very specific signature to our bodies so it can be destroyed as soon as it appears. . Therefore, any selection pressure would just be to not…

Are you saying that because the number of possible signatures is so vast and the vaccines so specific, even if they get slightly broader it isn’t going to make things worse because in the grand scale of things we aren’t really walling too much off?

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#88
post #84

Quoted post unavailable.

Covid antibodies, even vaccine induced ones, don't stick around for much more than 3-6 months. Whatever natural immunity you got nearly 3 years ago is long since useless. You're either getting lucky or an asymptomatic case and not knowing it.

edit: Since you're unvaccinated, go get a covid antibody test and check for yourself how good (or terrible) your immunity is to the virus. You can take either one, the S type or N type test, since you won't get a false positive from vaccine antibodies. Put your money where your mouth is and find out exactly how little protection natural immunity from 3 years ago is providing you.

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#89
post #7

Can anyone with more knowledge on this topic than me (I’m no expert) assuage my fears: by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy. Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been infected now. Might we run the risk of making things worse…

> by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy That'd be a valid question if we didn't ready have non-live vaccines with very good proven track records for polio, hepatitis, the flu, etc. > Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been i…

To be fair, you are stigmatizing someone for offering a correct observation (that the successive COVID variants have proven less debilitating and deadly) and for asking a question that must be on many people’s minds: can monoclonal antibody administration promote resistance analogous to bacterial antibiotic resistance?

Be aware that live virus vaccines are certainly not monoclonal antibody injections.

As well, rather than spending your mental energy developing excuses to dismiss, why not think on the subject at hand? You should wonder why this mouse model produces broadly neutralizing antibodies in response to COVID spike proteins while the human immune system does not.

That’s a bit interesting to the subject of COVID, isn’t it? Certainly more so than windmills and politics.

Re: New antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants in lab tests

#90
post #7

Can anyone with more knowledge on this topic than me (I’m no expert) assuage my fears: by giving human populations such artificial resistances (non-live vaccines) we run the risk of selecting for viruses that are even harder for even our own immune systems to detect and destroy. Current Covid strains don’t seem all that bad, basically everyone I know has been infected now. Might we run the risk of making things worse…

I think it is the other way around.

By cutting down the population of live covid virus particles in the wild, that is, living in human hosts, the possibility of a hard to kill variety to evolve will diminish by a very big probability.

In fact, the new more dangerous varieties are theorized to have evolved in single individuals, who lack a strong immune system, and can't kill a single virus infection for months, and then the virus accumulates changes over these months before jumping onto the general population.

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