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Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by Larrikin on Thursday February 19, 2026 @05:48PM (#47080791)
Are you wildly speculating or do you have a source with research backing up your claim evolution got it perfectly right?

I personally look forward to every innovation that potentially improves our baseline.

Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by dekhn on Thursday February 19, 2026 @06:58PM (#47081619)
They didn't claim evolution got it perfectly right.

They speculated that immune systems evolved to avoid being continuously on alert. And that's exactly right- our immune systems have an extremely complicated system for detecting foreign invaders that is tightly regulated. And a failure to regulate that is often associated with autoimmune disorders, which remain very poorly understood.

I've studied biology from the perspective of engineering better drugs for decades now and I can say with confidence that I simply don't understand how the immune system works, and I don't think anybody else really does either (compared to, say, the heart, or many biological systems like protein production). We have identified many players, and observed a great deal of actions, and have speculative models for many of the underlying processes, but we don't really have an "understanding" of the immune system. I skimmed this paper and frankly, it has a very long way to go before people are convinced to try this in human clinical trials.

I look forward to innovations, but to a first order approximation: evolution found model parameters that exceed the best human science and engineering.

Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by aaa_aaa on Thursday February 19, 2026 @06:02PM (#47080970)
I bet my money on the immune system any day.
Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by thomquaid on Thursday February 19, 2026 @06:08PM (#47081047)
Hard to beat a half million years of evolution with a nasal spray from last year.
Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by javascriptfan69 on Thursday February 19, 2026 @06:58PM (#47081630)
You don't have to bet money on it.

You can just stop taking antibiotics and vaccines.

Those are way more interesting odds.

Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by wizzwizz4 on Thursday February 19, 2026 @07:34PM (#47082020)
(Most) vaccines work by letting your immune system know to watch out for particular things. That's an information advantage. Likewise, antibiotics are chemical agents that the body lacks the genes to synthesise. Betting that the immune system's parameters are generally well-calibrated is entirely compatible with taking antibiotics and vaccines, where indicated.

You wouldn't want to get vaccinated for smallpox in the middle of a plague epidemic, because that would waste your immune system's resources on an extinct-in-the-wild disease, when it really needs to be gearing up to stop the plague killing you.

Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by XorNot on Thursday February 19, 2026 @09:59PM (#47083109)
The immune system does not expend resources on vaccines.

You do not somehow go into deficit by getting a vaccine.

Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by wizzwizz4 on Friday February 20, 2026 @01:03PM (#47091473)
The immune system does expend resources on vaccines: it makes antibodies, usually has some kind of inflammatory response…. But if a vaccine causes a nutritional deficiency, there's something seriously wrong with your diet.
Re:Single vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds an... by XorNot on Saturday February 21, 2026 @04:59PM (#47105261)
This is like saying that balancing while walking expends resources.

Yes it's technically true, but it is also how walking functions regardless of circumstance.