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New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

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Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#41

Post by giantg2 »

RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

"The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education."

It wouldn't be stopped, only slowed. You would still have transmission from accidental or unknown exposure. You would also have a small portion of the population that didn't care, regardless of the education.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#42

Post by felixg3 »

Telemakhos wrote: post #37
RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

[flagged]

Besides that, PrEP has enabled the return of non-HIV STIs in major cities like Berlin where a lot of the community has returned to raw-dogging since the AIDS-Scare has become a historical artifact.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#43

Post by dijit »

Telemakhos wrote: post #37
RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

[flagged]

> ... a solved problem if people are willing to give up sex with untested strangers

It's wired into our DNA to do this, and while we can be socialised out of it, you'll never get anywhere close to the near 100% you'd need.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#44

Post by jonathanlydall »

RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

You could say the same about teen pregnancy being a practically solved problem, except there is still the problem of teen pregnancy. Or even something more mundane as driving consistently safely all the time to solve the problem of accidents.

If everyone was disciplined all the time in regard to everything, many problems in the world would simply not exist. But we live in reality where for whatever reason, people don't know to do something, or they do know and they're just not disciplined, or they make a mistake due to extenuating circumstances. And I would expect that the vast majority of people would oppose any idea of somehow punitively "dealing with" people who get some things wrong.

So I would say that it's very evidently not a practically solved problem, because if it were we wouldn't be looking to solve it still.

Within this reality, a vaccine is a great additional tool at solving the problem of preventing the spread of HIV.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#45

Post by the-grump »

parhamn wrote: post #35
api wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All vaccines are training data for the immune system, which is a learning machine whose operation is a little bit like a genetic algorithm. It generates and sieves variation using a vocabulary of pre-encoded building blocks to fit the targets it's presented with. It's an incredible system, and a product of probably a billion years of evolution since the first multicellular organisms had to protect themselves from inf…

[flagged]

It certainly reads like it. Bots are everywhere now.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#46

Post by bluechair »

parhamn wrote: post #35
api wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All vaccines are training data for the immune system, which is a learning machine whose operation is a little bit like a genetic algorithm. It generates and sieves variation using a vocabulary of pre-encoded building blocks to fit the targets it's presented with. It's an incredible system, and a product of probably a billion years of evolution since the first multicellular organisms had to protect themselves from inf…

[flagged]

Seems normal to me.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#47

Post by simonask »

bluGill wrote: post #27
nerdjon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost and compliance are still 2 major factors that have not been solved. We also have education and stigma. While within the LGBT community it is far more common to be open about status and taking prep and doxy (far from perfect though), it still feels like outside of that the conversations are not happening as much as they should. Throw in doctors that are not being proactive about the conversation. Right now it see…

PReP has some side effects. While they are rare, they are things you need to be aware of. If you are not doing risky sex it isn't for you. Most people want to believe they are in a monogamous relationship and thus not having risky sex - even though they are the one cheating. Either PReP needs to be more common, are people need to stop their risky sex activities (that they are not even admitting to).

All sex is risky by this measure.

Condoms break. Partners lie. Shit happens.

It doesn’t take a lot for the risks to far outweigh any potential side effects. As far as I’m aware, every healthcare system in the developed world either recommends or enforces checkups after starting PrEP.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#49

Post by SoftTalker »

evilfred wrote: post #16
RGS1811 wrote: post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

prep is great but i would really rather take a one-time vaccine than be expected to take an expensive pill forever that could mess up my liver

Which one do you suppose the pharmaceutical companies would prefer?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#50

Post by nerdjon »

bluGill wrote: post #39
nerdjon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you are not doing risky sex it isn't for you. That blanket statement I very much disagree with. Sure there are side effects but that is part of why you also get tested every 3 months for liver issues (not that it is the only side effect, but still). Instead of it being a blanket statement it should be a conversation with your doctor about the pros and cons. You can still get HIV even if not engaging in risky beh…

I don't see how you are disagreeing. We are both saying that a lot more people are having risky sex than think they are.

I guess it depends on what we call risky, I mean if someone is actively trying to get pregnant are we considering that "risky"?

Someone could be taking the necessary precautions and a mistake happens, a condom breaks, whatever. Someone could have sex with one person in their life and they got it from that person. I would not consider that "risky" in any real sense of the word.

Any sex carries some amount of risk, and the key is being risk aware and not assuming that just because you are not engaging in what is generally deemed "risky" that you are safe. Instead you should be having that conversation with your doctor and determining what your risk tolerance is.

That is where I disagree, how many people are positive that never considered themselves engaging in risky behavior.

To me it is very dangerous, and leads to the situation we are in now, to just say only even consider prep if you are engaging in risky behavior.

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