Tilly Orifice wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 2:03 am
Openside wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:30 pm
TB63 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:41 pm
Do you realise 1 miniscule mutation could negate any vaccine currently in development? ..
since there have allegedly been 12,000 of them we are clearly spunking more money up the proverbial gum tree
Could, but wouldn't necessarily, perhaps.
Fear not OS - the chances of a successful vaccine remain pretty good.
the slow and mild nature of the mutations is good news for a vaccine.
“The virus is still so similar now to the initial sequence that there isn’t really much reason to think the differences will matter in terms of vaccine,” Neuman said.
Vaccines, in general, tend to target an early version of the virus.
Take the flu vaccine, for example.
“The H1N1 annual vaccine is still using a strain from 2009. It’s the ancestor of the various forms that have come after, and while there are differences now, a response against the ancestor seems to give good results against all the descendants,” Neuman said.
Usually, an older strain of a virus will “preserve enough features” that it will provide immunity against a whole group of variants, Neuman adds.
But the flu virus mutates fast and erratically from year to year.
On top of that, our immune system “has a terrible memory for flu viruses,” Neuman said, noting that the immune response to the flu only lasts around a year before we need to get revaccinated.
Schleiss says a better analogy for COVID-19 is the mumps. For more than 45 years, we’ve had a very effective vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (which are also RNA viruses).
“These viruses have not mutated [enough] to escape the protection provided by the vaccines,” Rose said. The same could very well apply to COVID-19.
“It should be possible to make an effective COVID-19 vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity against this particular virus just as we have for many other viruses that do not change rapidly,” Rose added.