The editors of the Washington Post see a prospect just on the horizon for a new, improved vaccine to prevent the spread of COVID-19:
After two years of research, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research are making progress toward the development of a pan-coronavirus vaccine, one that might work against all variants, including the new omicron and those potentially emerging in the future. According to Tara Copp of Defense One, scientists at the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch set this goal at the outset of the pandemic when they received the first whole genome sequence of the virus. Known as the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle or SpFN vaccine, it is now completing Phase I clinical trials and will need to undergo Phases II and III. But its developers say it has demonstrated a potent immune response and holds out the promise that it can confer broader protection than the current vaccines. The vaccine uses a soccer-ball shaped nanoparticle with 24 faces that allows scientists to attach spikes of multiple coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein.
While the wealthier nations of the world have been able to afford the advanced mRNA vaccines and boosters, people in poorer countries have been forced to wait. A vaccine candidate now in clinical trials could change that. The vaccine being developed by the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, under co-directors Dr. Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi, relies on an older and proven recombinant protein technology, already in use for hepatitis B vaccines. This vaccine could be scalable, cheap, safe and easy to make — a substantial gain at a time when much of the global south is still badly in need of doses.
I think there needs to be a footnote attached to their remarks about “poorer countries”. There are many impediments to extending vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 to people in many Third World countries. For one thing they don’t have the infrastructure, either physical or medical, especially for the mRNA vaccines which require environmental controls that are just beyond reach in many of these countries. And you think that “vaccine hesitancy” is a factor in the U. S.? According to at least one survey 60% of people in Benin, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, and Togo would refuse to accept vaccines. The issue is one of trust. They don’t trust us, they don’t trust the UN, they don’t trust their own governments, they don’t trust each other.
A vaccine that didn’t require special handling would be good but it probably wouldn’t get as much acceptance as the editors seem to assume.
There is also the issue of approval. Even emergency use authorization takes time. While not outright negative about what the editors are proposing, let say I’m skeptical that it’s the solution to our problems.
The recognition of this is what prompted my recent remark that a strategy based upon faulty assumptions is no strategy at all.
It is impossible to tell how effective, a priori, a vaccine campaign in “poorer” countries would be. It most assuredly would help. But the degree, as you point out, might be rather disappointing.
The disinformation campaigns have been so successful, along with a plague of stupid, that I doubt this makes a big difference. Might be some possibility people accept it since it wont seem so rushed but wouldn’t count on it.
Steve
â€And you think that “vaccine hesitancy†is a factor in the U. S.? According to at least one survey 60% of people in Benin, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, and Togo would refuse to accept vaccines.â€
….and yet in many 3rd world countries, like Africa, India, antivirals have been publicly distributed resulting in huge declines in infection rates. These drugs are taken voluntarily because they are known and trusted by the people being given them. Nonetheless, the medical establishment refuses to even acknowledge this other pathway to achieving a similar purpose – treating this virus and decreasing hospitalizations and deaths from it. Instead, they continue to label any data, anecdotal evidence signaling it’s success as simply “misinformation,†and further clouding it’s reputation as a viable course of action.
IMO, the real “disinformation campaigns†originate from the pharmaceutical companies (who want to keep data from the public eye for 50 plus years), the media parrots, and the compliant medical community who think they have all the answers and experience treating this virus – totally dismissing other physicians, treating this same virus successfully, and distinguished scientists who differ with them. What is especially terrifying to me is how those doctors wanting to prescribe something other than FDA unapproved vaccines, or those pharmacies willing to fill antiviral prescriptions, are being subjected to over the top threats, subject to having their licenses pulled. Talk about medical tyranny! Some people are starting to refer to said medical establishment as “Medical Cartels,†so dominate and suffocating are their demands of “treat it this way or else…â€
Gee, I wonder why there is vaccine hesitancy. They’ve oversold, and they are making a lot of it up on the fly. All delivered without any circumspection.
https://twitter.com/Martyupnorth_/status/1471694954002980866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1471694954002980866%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitizenfreepress.com%2Fbreaking%2Fdelete-delete-delete%2F
Five second clips out of context are a great way to prove anything. The sad thing is that people like you think that this is actual proof of something.
Steve