Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

lji.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 325 posts

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#101

Post by camphy »

Telemakhos wrote: post #54
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…

You are extremely unlikely to get HIV from anything other than risky sex. That's what "risk" means: it's another word for "probability," just a probability of negative outcomes. These probabilities are known: https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/estimated-hiv-risk-exposur... Some of that table is already mitigated: we test blood for HIV, so transmission by blood transfusion is unlikely. Transmission by pregnancy is less…

> Is someone irresponsible enough to pursue causal, unprotected sex with random partners also likely to be responsible enough to visit a doctor proactively and comply with a prep regimen?

Yeah, me. What a wild statement to make. It’s a big world out there, my friend.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#102

Post by skybrian »

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…

There are some dubious metaphors in use here. Public health is not about math problems to be “solved.” “A solution exists” is just a milestone. “We just have to use them” - yes, but leave out “just,” there is more to do and it’s hard.

The answer to “are more tools really going to help” is always going to be “it depends.” Promising interventions sometimes fail entirely. If they statistically improve outcomes, that’s a win. Only occasionally is a disease entirely eradicated.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#103

Post by gib444 »

dyauspitr wrote: post #85
felixg3 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that a huge problem? Doesn’t almost everything else have a prophylactic and is curable? Hep-C might be the only other one I believe and I’m unaware if it’s treatable or not.

Antibiotic resistant syphilis and ghonerrea don't sound like a fun time

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#104

Post by whimsicalism »

cguess wrote: post #96
whimsicalism wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? I would bank money on PEP being practically free in sub-saharan Africa.

*PrEP It... was, until Musk dismantled USAID and Congress defunded PEPFAR. So many comments by people who have never stepped foot out the Global North making wild assumptions.

I was explicitly referring to PEP. I'm not sure why you would make assumptions about where I have or haven't been when you have absolutely no information.

PEP remains largely free in SSA post-USAID/PEPFAR cuts.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#105

Post by neonstatic »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #44
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…

> 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.

Of course, and for good reason. The ones who know for a fact they are right, might in fact be wrong or malicious.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#106

Post by cguess »

whimsicalism wrote: post #104
cguess wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*PrEP It... was, until Musk dismantled USAID and Congress defunded PEPFAR. So many comments by people who have never stepped foot out the Global North making wild assumptions.

I was explicitly referring to PEP. I'm not sure why you would make assumptions about where I have or haven't been when you have absolutely no information. PEP remains largely free in SSA post-USAID/PEPFAR cuts.

Ok... so you have to

1. Know you were exposed (many many many people don't know they're HIV+)

2. Have the means to go to a clinic within 72 hours

3. Have the social capacity to go to the clinic safely (in many parts of Sub Saharan Africa doing so would insult your partner)

PEP is an emergency drug, not a prevention at all.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#107

Post by cucumber3732842 »

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…

Everything is a "solved problem" if you're willing to ignore a variable (usually money or human life/toil).

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#108

Post by neonstatic »

Saline9515 wrote: post #89
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…

[flagged]

> But I guess that sex without condoms is worth it, right?

Not speaking about LGBT related matters; Sex without condom is just like everything else - it depends on the person. For some people there is little to no difference. For others, wearing the condom removes all sensation, reducing the act to physical exercise. So is sex without condoms worth it? For some people, yes, it is.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#109

Post by jcul »

tempfile wrote: post #86
jonathanlydall wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Right, but we know that HIV/AIDS essentially is a solved problem in rich countries, that the mentioned interventions are readily available in rich countries, and the only reason HIV transmission is high in poor countries is because, well, they're poor. We (humanity as a whole) have plenty of money, we could fund these things, we simply choose not to. I would caution against making an allusion to self control. It woul…

I recently read "Everything is Tuberculosis". It describes a similar issue with the rich / poor country divide.

It's quite sad and difficult to read at times.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#110

Post by philipallstar »

epistasis wrote: post #92
maxerickson wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the current panic was that young people (not necessarily teens) weren't having enough kids?

Which is in fact panic that teens are not having enough children, because that's where we have seen big drops... This whole "panic" seemed weird from the start, but once it becomes clear that it's from the lack of teen pregnancies it takes on an even creepier Epstein-like oddness.

No, it's from the cost of living being so high that people are delaying having kids.
Post reply on HN