> The reason why is immunity to respiratory viruses (like corona) doesn’t last long – 6 months to 2 years.
I haven’t read anything like this before. It seems like you’re extrapolating from the flu vaccine, which doesn’t last because the flu mutates too quickly. Coronavirus mutate much slower and the thought is that we’ll likely only need one vaccine. Have we actually found any less deadly strains? My understanding is that there have been mutations, but all are small and as far as we can tell superficial. You would likely need to create such a mutation and then you’re back in vaccine trial territories, except dozens of labs that are experts on this have a head start.
> If humans do develop immunity, how long does it last?
> That’s another big unknown. Immunity is short-lived for the coronaviruses that cause common colds; even people who have high levels of antibodies against these viruses can still become infected, says Stanley Perlman, a coronavirologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
> The evidence is more equivocal for the two other coronaviruses that have triggered epidemics: those that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Perlman says his team has found that after people recover from MERS, their antibodies against the virus drop precipitously. He also says that his team has gathered data — not yet published — showing that SARS antibodies are still present in the body 15 years after infection. But it’s not clear whether this immune response is enough to prevent reinfection. “We don’t have good evidence of long-lasting immunity, but we also don’t have really good data from both SARS and MERS,” Perlman adds.
We we have found less deadly strains (I link to one paper in the post that found one - still too deadly) and we have found strains with large (and small) deletions. What we haven’t done is go specifically looking for strains with exactly the properties we want (yet at least).
There is no need to create any viral mutants in the lab (and all the difficulties this will involve), just use what is already out there in the community. We just need to go and look for them.
> The reason why is immunity to respiratory viruses (like corona) doesn’t last long – 6 months to 2 years.
I haven’t read anything like this before. It seems like you’re extrapolating from the flu vaccine, which doesn’t last because the flu mutates too quickly. Coronavirus mutate much slower and the thought is that we’ll likely only need one vaccine. Have we actually found any less deadly strains? My understanding is that there have been mutations, but all are small and as far as we can tell superficial. You would likely need to create such a mutation and then you’re back in vaccine trial territories, except dozens of labs that are experts on this have a head start.