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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

#141
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…

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So in other words… it’s not a solved problem. What point are you trying to make?

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't need to be 100% effective in humans, it just needs to slow transmission enough such that the rate of incidence declines in the direction of eradication.

It will have the opposite effect, if people who get the vaccine start behaving as though they are 100% protected (which, many people will).

> It will

It might. You don't know that.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not following the points in the above thread. - people need to make the right decisions to take oral or injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors - people need to make the right decisions to take HIV vaccines We are comparing two tools, not tools versus discipline. In some ways these reverse transcriptase inhibitors are like a vaccine, in that they can be taken by people who don't have HIV, for protection. They…

No, nothing is being compared. The question being posed is, if there are already tools to prevent HIV transmission (condoms, drugs, etc.) and someone doesn't use them, why would they use a vaccine?

Because a vaccine is much easier for the doctor to administer and manage. My GP won't put condoms on me but they do have a list of shots I get basically once and then never again.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#145
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…

it's actually an interesting question: is there a point where the long acting prep injections have effective durations that look like vaccines and boosters. and yes, sadly, it appears that convenience and some of the psychological aspects of marketing play outsized roles in public health.

either way, worth doing. you never know when circumstances might change and another tool in the toolbox becomes essential.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#146
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…

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It's not a small number, and like you point out, this is human nature, so asking people to stop is pointless. If people always acted rationally and with empathy for others, everything would be much easier. There would have been no Covid pandemic, no global warming, no drunk driving, and so on.

Yet here we are, needing laws, cops, vaccines, and so on. Asking people to only have absolutely safe sex due to its external effects is about as useful as asking them to stop eating meat due to its external effects.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#147
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Tuberculosis is different, in a very dark, utilitarian way. 4% of new TB cases are multi-drug resistant (19% of recurrences).

Once it’s multi-drug resistant, if you’re poor then you get an incredibly depressing choice. Rich countries pay for expensive drug resistance testing.

Poor countries have to answer an impossible question. You either do nothing and see if they live, or you try to guess what drugs will work and give them those. However, if you’re wrong and the treatment doesn’t work then the risk that you’ve just made the strain immune to one or more of the drugs in that cocktail skyrockets.

They get asked to either do nothing, or do the best they can today knowing it will make tomorrow worse.

TB is also shockingly infectious, which is sad. You can at least take steps to dramatically reduce HIV risk, it’s much much harder to avoid TB.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#148
post #8
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…

Isn’t prep more like a prophylactic, as opposed to a a vaccine? I’m more familiar with malaria, where the preventative medicines are currently more effective than the vaccines.

"Prophylactic" is a broad-enough word to encompass vaccines, as well, so I'm not sure what you're getting at. It just means something that defends against disease.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is entirely possible to believe multiple things at once: 1. The drop is fertility is bad for society 2. The drop in teen pregnancy is good, despite it's contributions to 1 3. We should try to fix 1. without undoing 2.

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