Is the “revolutionary flu shot” even feasible at the moment?
From the little I understand about the topic, our hopes of getting rid of the flu are pretty much none until vaccines for the constantly adapting flu virus are very cheap and very quick to develop/deploy.
Until then, the virus will simply adapt to the old vaccines quicker than we can counter it.
the flu basically has one of the highest mutation rate, only HIV is higher. they do it in 3 parts, antigenic shift, genetic drift, and recombination, the last one makes it more dangerous, they can recombine with more than 1 different strain to make a new one, that was the case with h1n1.
I thought there was an effort to target a not-so-easy to change part of the virus. Maybe I’ve been dreaming. Either way the yearly shot, mRNA or otherwise is much more profitable so a one-and-done vaccine won’t appear out of Moderna of Pfizer, that’s for sure.
The whole not easy to change part can be a little misleading too. They originally thought that was the case with covid vaccines and it turned out that was not the case. Turns out when there’s pressure, sometimes things actually can happen.
As if the companies would think long term instead of yearly profit… whoever comes up with a one and done flu vaccine will see an enormous (if short) spike in profits and shareholders will want that spike to sell at the highest price possible and maybe get some dividends along the way.
Is the “revolutionary flu shot” even feasible at the moment?
From the little I understand about the topic, our hopes of getting rid of the flu are pretty much none until vaccines for the constantly adapting flu virus are very cheap and very quick to develop/deploy. Until then, the virus will simply adapt to the old vaccines quicker than we can counter it.
the flu basically has one of the highest mutation rate, only HIV is higher. they do it in 3 parts, antigenic shift, genetic drift, and recombination, the last one makes it more dangerous, they can recombine with more than 1 different strain to make a new one, that was the case with h1n1.
I thought there was an effort to target a not-so-easy to change part of the virus. Maybe I’ve been dreaming. Either way the yearly shot, mRNA or otherwise is much more profitable so a one-and-done vaccine won’t appear out of Moderna of Pfizer, that’s for sure.
The whole not easy to change part can be a little misleading too. They originally thought that was the case with covid vaccines and it turned out that was not the case. Turns out when there’s pressure, sometimes things actually can happen.
As if the companies would think long term instead of yearly profit… whoever comes up with a one and done flu vaccine will see an enormous (if short) spike in profits and shareholders will want that spike to sell at the highest price possible and maybe get some dividends along the way.