[1] Messenger RNA expressing PfCSP induces functional, protective immune responses against malaria in mice.
Note that mRNA technology is not limited to viruses. The cancer vaccine is actually a misnomer as it is actually a personalized treatment for people who already have cancer [1]:
> The cells from the patient's tumor are analyzed, and genetic sequencing is used to identify twenty neoantigen epitopes that may elicit the strongest immune response in the patient. The sequences encoding the twenty patient-specific epitopes are transcribed and loaded onto a single mRNA molecule. [...] This leads to an induction of both cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL)- and memory T-cell-dependent immune responses that specifically target and destroy the patient's cancer cells that express these neoantigens.
BioNTech has actually started Phase 2 trials for a mRNA-based cancer therapy [2].
[1] https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-drug...
[2] https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/first-patient-dosed...
What's funny is the US initially only vaccinated women against HPV because "men can't get cervical cancer". Then it turned out lots of men were getting oral/throat cancers from oral HPV acquired from oral sex. Oops!
The trail of bread crumbs seems to be there. - HPV - Hep C - Human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus (HTLV)
I recall there being a sudden, loud push 10ish years ago, for everyone to get the HPV vaccine.
There were some anti-vax arguments against it for the same reason as there's resistance to sex ed; but no "men can't get cervical cancer" arguments, that I recall.
> Vaccination of secondary target populations e.g. females aged ≥15 years or males, is only recommended if feasible, affordable, cost-effective and does not divert resources from vaccinating primary target population or from effective cervical cancer screening programmes.
> HPV-related throat cancer is on the rise, and the typical patient is a male in his 50s or 60s.
It's nice for a first-world citizen that we were getting vaccinated against a new disease 12-18 months after it was first discovered, but with a big enough supply chain we could potentially be aiming to finish a world-wide vaccination campaign in 6-12 months, before we begin running up against the limits of our current methodologies for clinical trials.
In the 90s, sure. Between treatment so effective that you can't pass it on and PreP, the days of HIV is over anyway. Vactination might be a bigger deal in poor countries, but they are also the countries that can least afford it.
If they can cure HIV, that would be another thing.
I’m not talking about the scare mongering of long term effects. Just the immediate.
The day after my second moderna shot was worse than any flu I can remember and many of my friends in their 20s and 30s had to take a day off after their shot. I know several people in their 60s who had to take several days to a week in bed from vaccine side effects.
That’s fine for ending a pandemic or curing HIV, but for seasonal flu?
In terms of lost labor days, my anec-data points to this vaccine seeming worse than a seasonal flu.
Compared to having a sore arm for a couple of days? Or even getting sick for a day or two - at a time I can choose - to just not deal with getting sick later on? Sure. And I'm awfully sure that the flu kills more than the vaccine for it. So many complications for so many people.
And to be fair: The folks you knew in their 60's had an unusual reaction. Older people with their aging immune systems are actually more likely to get little to know side effects to vaccines - younger folks tend to get more. The same goes for folks that are genetically female: You tend to get more side effects (they think this is because so many immune genes are on sex chromosomes, and women have more genes here.).
And to be fair: Taking a day off of work when you are sick isn't such a big deal if you live somewhere with labor protection laws that allow you sick days. It is a little less of a big deal if you live in the US and get paid sick time, but a lot of folks just don't have this so it makes being sick after a vaccine a bigger deal that it should be.
I know this is just another anecdote, but I get a flu shot every year and have never experienced anything more than a sore arm. With 2nd Moderna dose I had a fever of 103 and was completely out of commission for 36 hours.
It's all relative. The side effects from a flu shot are mild compared to the flu. Ditto for the Moderna vaccine.
With the second phizer shot, I mild symptoms for a day.
I would say a couple of days of flu is vastly better than some of the other side effects I've seen with other medications. Take for instance:
- Suicidal thoughts - Abnormal heart rhythms - Internal bleeding - Cancer
At the end of the day, we rely on medical professionals to help us with these decisions and weigh the treatment of said ailments against the side effects we may incur if we do or don't take treatment. For what it's worth I've seen the opposite, most folks took the day off just in case there was a side effect, but ultimately everyone was fine. I know I scheduled my vaccine shots for a Thursday so I could have a 3 day weekend assuming I wasn't feeling ill, and I felt fine so I enjoyed my 3 day weekend.
I'm sure a second shot of the traditional flu vaccine wouldn't feel great.
Also, these vaccines were very rapidly developed so perhaps the next generation of them will be a bit easier on the body.
like the covid one is sold at super low prices compared to what would normally be possible
but the other products won't have nearly as many customers either
what do you guys think?
I am no expert but my understanding is that AIDS occurs when a variant targeting receptors more specific to CD4 T-cells begins replicating (or begins replicating at too high a rate), which results in T-cell counts falling below some threshold. So a person will go through an extended period without feeling any symptoms, possibly transmitting the virus to others (hence the importance of widespread, easy access to testing), only to be incapacitated by AIDS later when the "balance" of the variants changes (assuming they do not receive HIV-suppressing medications).
HIV has resisted efforts to develop a vaccine for 30+ years at this point.
I am already beginning to wonder if the 2020s will be the story of the social transformation caused by mRNA vaccines. An effective and relatively cheap HIV vaccine will be huge.
Apart from Covid and HIV, mRNA is going to have a huge effect on the flu vaccine too. For anyone who doesn't know, predictions are made about what flu strains will dominate the coming winter 4-6+ months ahead of time and the vaccine is made from that. Those predictions may not be accurate, which largely explains the variance of efficacy. mRNA has the potential to reduce that down to 1-2 months so you can potentially react to the actual dominant strains.
Cancer of course isn't a single disease. Even something like lung cancer are a collection of different diseases. But some cancers are caused by viruses. A notable example is cervical cancer where it seems like most cases are caused by HPV strains. Australia is on track to essentially eliminate cervical cancer by 2035 [1]. To be clear, this isn't an mRNA vaccine.
But mRNA vaccines may greatly reduce the time required to develop a vaccine and make it possible to eliminate whole classes of diseases.
This is all super-exciting.
[1]: https://www.vcs.org.au/blog/our-impact/news/australia-can-co....