Re:Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine
by epistasis on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @10:15AM
(#28210080)
The history of HIV research has had a lot of valiant work. We have had several vaccine attempts in the past, that have all been unsuccessful.
And despite President-level dismissal of HIV/AIDS at the time, significant resources were devoted to it in the 80s, such that even though we didn't make huge progress against HIV at the time, the research on HIV progressed the rest of the field.
And a lot of our anti-viral drugs have come out of HIV research as well.
A modern Project Warpspeed probably wouldn't be quite as successful as a Covid19 Warpspeed, because a lot of the first ideas have already been attempted. But with the new sorts of designs that mRNA vaccines allow, there's a lot more that's possible now.
And despite President-level dismissal of HIV/AIDS at the time, significant resources were devoted to it in the 80s, such that even though we didn't make huge progress against HIV at the time, the research on HIV progressed the rest of the field.
And a lot of our anti-viral drugs have come out of HIV research as well.
A modern Project Warpspeed probably wouldn't be quite as successful as a Covid19 Warpspeed, because a lot of the first ideas have already been attempted. But with the new sorts of designs that mRNA vaccines allow, there's a lot more that's possible now.