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Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by jcims on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @07:40AM (#25581162)
There are definitely phenotypical variations in humans that have health implications. To the extent that some of these are adaptive to region they may align with the rather poorly defined buckets we call ‘race’.

To GP’s point, lack of diversity in clinical trials can result in medicines that vary in efficacy and safety in the broader population. The ability to customize a therapy to an individual would help reduce the impact of this issue.

Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by panta on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @07:41AM (#25581166)
AFAIK there are no human races from a taxonomic point of view, all human beings belong to the same subspecies. There are of course genetic differences between individuals and ethnic groups though, otherwise we would be all identical twins (the point is not condemning the differences - differences are in general a good thing - the point is not attaching value judgements to the differences).
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by rory on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @11:26AM (#25583009)
Subspecies definitions can be rather arbitrary in general, and don't fit well to a species with the technology of humans.

1000 years ago you probably could have said that indigenous subsaharan Africans and Americans are different subspecies of homo sapiens simply because one group has darker brown skin and lives in Africa, and one has lighter brown skin and lives in the Americas (phenotype difference + range difference is all it takes). But today the "native range" of every ethnic group is essentially global due to airplanes and immigration, so you'd probably say we're all one subspecies. But either way, the label "subspecies" conveys far less information than people sometimes assign it.

Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by lebuffon on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @09:29AM (#25581957)
Since 23andMe can figure out your geographic origin from your DNA there must be differences. Studying the nature of these differences might make some people uncomfortable but just as with subtle male/female differences, these studies could lead to amazing improvements in medical treatment.
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by mensetmanusman on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @09:43AM (#25582071)
There are genetic differences between all humans.
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by mschuster91 on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @07:39AM (#25581150)
Yes, certain medications have different dosages depending on ethnic groups: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA....

There exist even special medicine to account for genetic differences in Black people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isosorbide_dinitrate/hydralazi...