From the frontiers of viral immunology
Ever since the COVID mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) proved themselves, I became convinced they are the future of viral vaccines. Looks like a polyvalent flu vaccine is in the works that may obviate annual strain-specific vaccines.
“In this work, we developed a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA)–lipid nanoparticle vaccine encoding hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 known influenza A virus subtypes and influenza B virus lineages. This multivalent vaccine elicited high levels of cross-reactive and subtype-specific antibodies in mice and ferrets that reacted to all 20 encoded antigens. Vaccination protected mice and ferrets challenged with matched and mismatched viral strains, and this protection was at least partially dependent on antibodies. Our studies indicate that mRNA vaccines can provide protection against antigenically variable viruses by simultaneously inducing antibodies against multiple antigens.”
“A multivalent nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine against all known influenza virus subtypes,” Science, Authors
“COVID vaccines and antibodies,” Angry Bear, Joel Eissenberg
‘Ever since the COVID mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) proved themselves’
All they ‘proved’ was 3 week immunity. Full stop.
LOL! Please cite where anyone made the claim of proof. Take all the time you need.
That’s probably an example of “brain fuzz” induced by getting COVID too many times for lack of taking precautions.
I have a feeling Doug is not going to reply……
Quite possibly the biggest breakthrough in the history of medicine.
People are still stuck in COVID mode, still jerking their knees, unable to see the wider potential applications that have been published since their introduction. Most overlooked is they are quite possibly as effective a flu-vax as the flu-vax.
Read somewhere this morning about how in Mexico, without mandates and the associated snot-nosed temper tantrums, masking has become as culturally the norm as across the Pacific. People wear them. Nobody thinks about it. There’s no stigma, no crybaby bs, no snot-nosed temper tantrums.
I was reading an article on respiratory viral disease research in which a Hong Kong researcher complained that his city was a terrible place for his kind of research because everyone wears masks and people tend not to get lots of respiratory viral infections. (Sort of the opposite, in another issue, was a Saudi researcher on what a great place Saudi Arabia is for studying genetic diseases since everyone marries a cousin.)
“Without mandates” I think is a key part of this reported development. As far as I can tell, without mandates, masking or not masking seems to be accepted as an individual’s choice in the US now.
Not totally off topic but a bit tangential. What are colleges that mandated COVID vaccination doing as their student populations turn over with students coming from high schools where very few had this mandate? As far as I can tell, child/youth COVID vaccinations are really low now and the FDA adding it to their schedule has not changed this (little uncertain if FDA added this, or simply their committee voted to add it). Are colleges keeping or are they dropping mandates?
@Eric,
I haven’t done a national survey, but my university requires proof of full COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, staff and faculty who are physically present on our St. Louis campuses as well as students who will be studying outside the U.S., including on our Madrid campus. It is a private university.
Inertia, or a policy that gets reviewed frequently? Does your University require liability waivers from students, staff and faculty? My neighbor is HR manager at 100+ employee facility in Brown county WI and that was one of her key headaches when the OSHA rule looked like it was happening. Her corporate legal staff was pushing that a specific liability waiver be part of their plan, which she felt was incendiary….you must take this, but if you get a bad reaction, well don’t think you can hold us accountable for that.
@Eric,
I’m a professor, not an administrator, so I’m not consulted on policy. My casual observation is that all students have a choice whether or not to enroll at my university, so nobody is “forced” to be vaccinated. If you are staff, you can quit. With tenured faculty, I’m not sure what they do with anti-vaxxers.
We’re a middle sized university, but we are heavily tuition-dependent and so financially valanced towards leniency. OTOH, we have a medical school and a law school and are home to one of 10 NIH-designated vaccine centers, so I expect the medical and legal ramifications have been vetted.