
Researchers Step Up Efforts to Develop a 'Universal' Flu Vaccine - js2
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/27/807743274/researchers-step-up-efforts-to-develop-a-universal-flu-vaccine
======
ken
Just as interesting, in hindsight, is the sidebar link: "Why The World Cares
More About The New Coronavirus Than The Flu" \-- February 3, 2020:

> By contrast [with the flu], this new coronavirus has only just started
> circulating in humans. "We basically have the opportunity to prevent spread
> of a new respiratory disease in the first place," says Althaus.

~~~
kadoban
Do we though? How? It has already spread as far as I can tell. Maybe back in
early Februrary it seemed more containable, not anymore though.

The reason I care more about ncov is it's about to overwhelm our hospitals far
past capacity and even without that has what seems to be a _much_ higher
fatality rate than the flu.

~~~
cbhl
The confirmed case graphs have a lag time of a week or two, because you can
only get a test after you start showing symptoms, and they take a long time to
run.

We also don't know what the graphs would have looked like if we didn't enact
social distancing -- even if the graph is not flattening right away, it
doesn't mean that we should give up. For all we know, the graph could be way
worse without these measures (assuming a hypothetical world where we have
perfect knowledge and have enough PPE and swabs and machines to test every
person who suspects they have COVID-19, which the US currently doesn't).

Please don't give up!

------
known
There are two ways to fight back. First, drugs could attack the virus’s own
proteins, preventing them from doing jobs like entering the cell or copying
their genetic material once they are inside. This is how remdesivir – a drug
currently in clinical trials for COVID-19 – works.

A problem with this approach is that viruses mutate and change over time. In
the future, the coronavirus could evolve in ways that render a drug like
remdesivir useless. This arms race between drugs and viruses is why you need a
new flu shot every year.

Alternatively, a drug can work by blocking a viral protein from interacting
with a human protein it needs. This approach – essentially protecting the host
machinery – has a big advantage over disabling the virus itself, because the
human cell doesn’t change as fast. Once you find a good drug, it should keep
working. This is the approach that our team is taking. And it may also work
against other emergent viruses.

[http://archive.vn/0skBn](http://archive.vn/0skBn)

------
mrfusion
I’d imagine a lot of these type of projects could get way more funding and
interest now.

------
CyanLite4
Netflix show “Pandemic” has featured Jake Glanville who says he has a working
universal flu vaccine. However it takes 7 injections over a few months. His
work is now trying to get it down to 1. I think at-risk patients and
“important people” (POTUS for example) would consider taking all 7 injections
if it meant never having the flu ever again.

~~~
emiliobumachar
I'm not at risk nor particularly important, but 7 shots over a few months seem
like a great deal, and a step up from the yearly flu shot. Am I missing
something?

~~~
rabboRubble
My guess is the issue is compliance with the injection schedule. During my HEP
A/B three part vaccine, the doctor fought me about starting the series from
the first shot as "did not need it based on job and lifestyle", on the second
shot my insurance declined paying for it because whatever reason they pulled
out of their backside.

Compare to my aunt, she got the first shot but not the second and third
because she does not see the point. No amount of urging by family has changed
her mind.

If the 7 part shot was available now, I would get it and finish it. Not
everybody would because humans be oddballs.

------
Abishek_Muthian
The reason I understand why there hasn't been a 'Universal vaccine' for common
cold is because there are more than 200 strains of Rhinovirus causing it.

My worry is, COVID-19 causing SARS-CoV2 shouldn't become another Rhinovirus
due to mutations from the large spread. There was a paper form China telling
there has already been at-least one mutation in Wuhan; but the accuracy of
that research is disputed due to small sample size.

Edit: Mixed Flu with common cold, corrected.

~~~
est31
There is already a large amount of mutations of SARS-Cov-2:
[https://nextstrain.org/ncov](https://nextstrain.org/ncov)

Most of them are irrelevant noise but some likely alter behaviour.

The influenza virus is more inviting to evolution due to having multiple
nucleoproteins. If multiple strains of influenza manage to infect the same
cell, the virions produced will contain a mixture of the nucleoproteins. The
process is called reassortment.

Corona on the other hand has only one conneted RNA strand.

This is only what I gathered from the internet, not an expert on this.

~~~
mettamage
I'd like hear an expert speaking on evolution and how that might effect
immunity and the behavior of the virus.

So far I've only read [1] that wrote about Nextstrain. While he clearly did
his homework with a group of people, you can read in the comments that experts
think his conclusions about the mutating genome are a bit too strong. Too
strong as in: it could be the case but you can't state that it is the case.

[1] [https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-
th...](https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-
be9337092b56)

------
kul_
Scientists already have a precise knowledge of what the human body is made of,
is it possible to develop a shot which basically annhilates anything in the
body which is not supposed to be there? I mean instead of developing a vaccine
which kills xyz vareity of microbes it will destroy everything which is not in
human genetics.

~~~
williamdclt
Not being any sort of competent in any sort of field related to this:

From my understanding, most of what's inside our bodies isn't part of our
genetics. For example there's lots and lots of bacteria, microbes, whatever
that constitutes the fauna of the digestive system, it's not produced by the
body but is essential to its functioning.

Once again, I don't really know what I'm talking about

------
imvetri
Educate people for a universal discipline.

Prevention is better than cure, prevent infections by preventing unhealthy
lifestyle.

If we have prevention and cure at the same time, people is going to be
reckless. Enforce prevention methods as first step.

~~~
crazygringo
You can't prevent transmission of colds or the flu while living a healthy,
normal life.

20 students breathing together in a classroom are going to pass something on
no matter what.

Short of living under eternal quarantine, there's no "healthy lifestyle" that
prevents.

