
Gates Foundation launches $12M Grand Challenge for universal flu vaccine - doener
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/gates-foundation-flu-grand-challenge/
======
nonbel
To put $12 million in perspective, its estimated that much is wasted on crappy
medical research every 35-40 minutes:

[http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/01/14/paul-glasziou-and-
iain-c...](http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/01/14/paul-glasziou-and-iain-
chalmers-is-85-of-health-research-really-wasted/)

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theptip
It's interesting to think about -- we're nowhere near this level of
sophistication currently, but will evolved viruses and bacteria eventually
cease to be a threat once we thoroughly understand the proteome, and can
simulate biological systems well enough to come up with vaccines in faster-
than-evolutionary timeframes?

I'd expect such a world to include a dramatically increased thread of
bioterrorism, however.

~~~
rincebrain
I don't foresee that happening for a while, if ever - even if we could make a
plug-and-play vaccine framework, all it would take would be one benign-or-
otherwise infectious organism coming up with a mechanism to effectively
minimize vaccine response going forward without too much selection pressure
against it, and then those infected would need some treatment beyond simply
informing the adaptive parts of the immune system where to nuke. (And that's
ignoring the faster-than-realtime simulation requirements at a truly
staggering scale to keep up with the microorganisms involved.)

The thing I find most promising, these days, are results that show
fundamentally different types of treatment (like phage therapy, or some of the
stranger results with internal parasites) can be used in combination to weaken
antibiotic resistance of resistant strains, and then you can wash out the
remnants with those same antibiotics. [1] [2]

[1] - [https://news.yale.edu/2018/03/08/bacteria-hunting-virus-
fish...](https://news.yale.edu/2018/03/08/bacteria-hunting-virus-fished-
connecticut-lake-treats-infected-doctor)

[2] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy)

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zitterbewegung
I really hope Gates gets nominated for a Nobel Prize. He deserves it.

~~~
inciampati
He robbed value from society by monopolizing the operating systems market with
extremely nasty business practices. We are still suffering. Now he gets oodles
of credit for throwing the change back at humanitarian projects which
sometimes bear fruit. I'll change my mind about him when he donates 10 billion
to open source software to offset the damage his company has done. It would be
ideal if he gave the rest of his loot to democratic systems that allow local
people to decide where to put the money. We don't need kings or emperors.

~~~
melling
Nah, I lived through the entire period. Human nature is the reason we had a
Microsoft monopoly. Apple didn’t care enough. The Linux people wanted lots of
distributions, and couldn’t build a consumer business model with a gun to
their heads.

Open Office was, and is, a piece of garbage.

I wasted a lot of time explaining to people that if we all bought our cars
from GM, they would suck. That’s what Microsoft was.

Just let it go.

Although, it sure would have been nice if the Amiga carved out 10% market
share.

~~~
Alex3917
> Human nature is the reason we had a Microsoft monopoly.

They straight up bribed the regulators. If Office stored data in an easy-to-
parse open format, society may well have already created a universal flu
vaccine.

~~~
49bc
That’s a really narrow view of the world by someone that’s probably never sold
to business. MS products worked exactly the way people who were paid for them
care they worked.

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Someone1234
Between a potential universal flu vaccines and Norovirus vaccines[0], a lot of
currently common illnesses could be slashed in the future. Exciting time to be
alive and hopefully not be getting sick. The Norovirus one could also be
interesting for another reason, it might be the first vaccine you swallow
instead of is injected.

[0]
[https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180302005118/en/Vax...](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180302005118/en/Vaxart-
Present-Clinical-Data-Oral-Norovirus-Vaccine)

~~~
ttul
I’d pay any amount to get rid of Norovirus.

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cimmanom
That seems like a small prize relative to the cost of vaccine development.

~~~
gehwartzen
Aren't you basically printing money once you have a universal vaccine for the
flue? I imagine 12m will be peanuts in comparison.

~~~
cimmanom
But then why would $12M be an incentive?

~~~
qbrass
It's not. It's something you throw at the people who did it without your help
to attach your name to their accomplishments.

------
0xFFC
.

~~~
brent_noorda
I think about pink spotted aardvarks when I feel I’m about to come down with a
cold. The cold usually doesn’t come. This is a lot quicker and less sweaty
than the sauna trick.

~~~
0xFFC
?

------
Jedd
Headline is:

> Gates Foundation launches $12M Grand Challenge for universal flu vaccine

Story 16 years ago on The Register (an agency undeniably prone to hyperbole &
sarcasm, but also fiercely committed to truth in reporting):

> Gates gives $100 million to fight HIV, $421 million to fight Linux [1]

Right now the Gates Foundation is sitting on around 38,000 million (USD)

The foundation has some non-trivial criticisms [2]

Whenever anything about Bill's activities comes up in the modern era there's
several demographics that appear - people wary of lionising people whose
wealth was obtained at best unethically (at worst, illegally) - through to
ends-justifies-the-means types.

Some commonly understood context around why different groups have vastly
different takes on these announcements would be good for everyone involved.

[1]
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/13/gates_gives_100m_to...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/13/gates_gives_100m_to_fight/)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Criticism)

EDIT: For any astroturfers keen to discourage comparative analysis, I'm happy
to engage in an actual discussion around this. I appreciate it's a complex
subject full of subtle nuances.

