[HN Gopher] Research finds immune system responds to mRNA treatm...
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       Research finds immune system responds to mRNA treatment for cancer
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 152 points
       Date   : 2021-12-15 15:46 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org)
        
       | erickhill wrote:
       | Not trying to be cheeky: How many millions of citizens here in
       | the U.S. will abstain from a potential cancer vaccine if based
       | off this research? Would the same religious/tribal objections be
       | held, for example, if the disease to be prevented was cancer vs a
       | virus of unknown origin? Would it still be viewed by so many as a
       | political/big-pharma conspiracy ("But where did the cancer come
       | from?" etc.)?
       | 
       | Cynical me says it would.
        
         | standardUser wrote:
         | It depends 100% on if the conservative media and figureheads
         | like Trump think they can make hay out of turning any given
         | medical treatment into a way to oppose liberals. Let's hope
         | they can't.
        
         | acomjean wrote:
         | There is a cancer vaccine (HPV) for cervical cancers. Its a
         | touchy subject but reports are vaccinations are declining.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/well/live/hpv-vaccine-
         | chi...
         | 
         | "that parental intent not to vaccinate their adolescents
         | against HPV rose from 50.4 percent in 2012 to 64 percent in
         | 2018. Many parents resisted the vaccine despite their doctors'
         | recommendations, Dr. Sonawane said. Ironically, parents were
         | most resistant -- at 68.1 percent -- to vaccinating girls, the
         | very group for whom this vaccine was initially developed to
         | prevent cervical cancer."
         | 
         | https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/parents/vaccine-for-hpv.html
         | 
         | When in a doctors office with a cancer diagnosis, people will
         | take it.
        
           | mmastrac wrote:
           | When the research showed it was useful for men (in both self-
           | and other-protection regards), it was still not an easy task
           | to get my doctor to prescribe it for me. Zero hesitation on
           | my part to get it, even with the extremely high price tag.
        
             | zhengyi13 wrote:
             | I'm curious how long ago this was for you?
             | 
             | When my 15 year old son went to his new doctor earlier this
             | year, they immediately strongly suggested it as a very good
             | idea.
        
               | mmastrac wrote:
               | Approx 3 years ago, but I was in my late 30s.
        
             | maweaver wrote:
             | My doctor told me I was too old for it. I went to CVS
             | instead and got it for free, zero questions asked.
        
               | throwawayboise wrote:
               | If you already have HPV I'm not sure it does any good.
        
           | kemayo wrote:
           | I got it for my daughter the instant she was eligible last
           | year, because cervical cancer is awful and it seemed stupid
           | not to.
           | 
           | My experience suggests that it was something the doctor's
           | office wasn't actively _pushing_ -- they made it known that
           | it was available without me having to ask, but it was
           | presented very much as a  "do you want to?" thing, rather
           | than as part of the "of course you'll be getting this" set of
           | earlier vaccines.
           | 
           | Then it was sort of a pain to actually get, because it
           | required an extra doctor visit for the second shot in the
           | series.
           | 
           | I can see all that adding up to hurting uptake.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | > When in a doctors office with a cancer diagnosis, people
           | will take it.
           | 
           | That's a bit late.
        
             | whatshisface wrote:
             | It may not even be true - cancer has a denial phase.
        
           | snarfy wrote:
           | My trump loving father-in-law tried to deny my niece from
           | getting the HPV vaccine because it would 'increase
           | promiscuity'. It's literally a cure for cancer and they don't
           | care.
        
             | mikeyouse wrote:
             | The logic of "I'll make sure my minor child doesn't have
             | sex with the threat of an untreatable STD and substantially
             | higher lifetime risk of cancer" is so incredibly insane to
             | me I have a hard time empathizing on any level.
             | 
             | Seems akin to "I'm going to forbid my child from wearing a
             | seatbelt to ensure they pay attention while they drive."
        
             | BeetleB wrote:
             | Well Trump is a great authority on promiscuity :-)
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | I hope you set him straight on that count.
        
               | qzw wrote:
               | Boromir meme: One does not simply set a trumpy FIL
               | straight.
               | 
               | Source: have a trumpy FIL.
        
           | josephwegner wrote:
           | Men too :)
           | 
           | HPV is most commonly known for being a cause of cervical
           | cancer, but it can lead to other sorts of cancer that men are
           | also prone to. HPV vaccines are good for everyone!
           | 
           | https://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm
        
         | nvahalik wrote:
         | As someone who is very anti-COVID vaccinations, my problem with
         | it isn't the vaccine itself or the underlying technology so
         | much as it's been the plethora of other issues associated with
         | it. The normal processes for drug approval were bypassed and so
         | as a result we have very limited safety data and no long-term
         | >5yr safety data at all.
         | 
         | With something like this, I would expect it to go through those
         | trials and see that we'd have some sort of safety data and
         | further research.
         | 
         | Again, I am actually very positive about mRNA therapies--I just
         | want them to be fully tested and vetted first.
        
           | mike00632 wrote:
           | It's important to correct this misinformation and point out
           | that "normal processes" were followed. The long approval
           | process delayed the roll out of the vaccine causing hundreds
           | of thousands of needless deaths. If anything, the approval
           | should have gone faster.
        
             | nvahalik wrote:
             | There were no clinical trials. There is no safety data.
             | Perfectly healthy young people have reported heart problems
             | after getting it.
             | 
             | Let's face it: anyone who takes it is participating in an
             | experiment. It may be that the risks are OK for a lot of
             | people. But obviously there is more to discover.
        
           | standardUser wrote:
           | Yes, though it is funny how until it became a political
           | issue, virtually no one knew anything about the processes by
           | which new drugs made their way into their body.
        
           | multjoy wrote:
           | So you'd simply let a pandemic rage for five years?
        
             | donkarma wrote:
             | it seems that this was going to happen vaccine or not
        
             | nvahalik wrote:
             | The problem, of course, is that vaccinations don't _end_
             | pandemics.
             | 
             | If they did, some places would likely be completely free of
             | COVID. However, they are not.
             | 
             | They lessen the effects but many people have pointed out
             | that this whole thing is entirely new territory: We have a
             | flu "vaccination" but the flu us just something people
             | learn to live with.
             | 
             | We have never----ever----forced mass vaccination against a
             | viral respiratory infection. Because we cannot vaccinate it
             | away. COVID is here to stay and I (personally) don't think
             | anything will happen until people contract it enough to get
             | a good natural immunity and then things will go away.
        
             | gassiss wrote:
             | Just because you don't agree with X doesn't mean you need
             | to have an alternative for it
        
         | johnisgood wrote:
         | People turn to pseudo-scientific stuff as a last resort (or the
         | only) as well, so I would not necessarily say they would not
         | get the vaccine if it might be their last hope.
        
         | shadowgovt wrote:
         | People have a belief that they can just tough out COVID, and so
         | the vaccine is a long-term-risk tradeoff: suffer unknown side-
         | effects of the vaccine, or maybe die of this disease that my
         | friend had and recovered from?
         | 
         | This immunotherapy is cotemporal with "traditional"
         | immunological and chemo treatments, so the mortality calculus
         | is different: "Suffer potential unknown side-effects of an mRNA
         | therapy or content myself with that 'three months' number the
         | doctor gave me?"
        
         | kevin_b_er wrote:
         | So we'll have a group of people who suffer from cancer and
         | those who don't. Natural selection it would seem.
        
         | bkjelden wrote:
         | I tend to think the abstinence rate would be much lower than
         | with the vaccine.
         | 
         | Cancer scares people in a way that COVID doesn't.
         | 
         | Many of the anti-vaxxers do not perceive COVID as a credible
         | risk, so they let their contrarian/anti-authoritarian/"don't
         | tell me what to do" instincts kick in, because none of it
         | actually matters to them in their mind.
         | 
         | When faced with a form of cancer that has a <10% survival rate
         | they will shut up and take the mRNA treatment in a heartbeat.
        
           | hncurious wrote:
           | I agree. It'd be the same with Covid too if the risk was
           | high. Ultimately the reason so many don't want a Covid
           | vaccine is because the risk of hospitalization is only 1.6%
           | and is well below 1% if you're young and otherwise healthy.
           | Or if you already had Covid and have natural immunity you're
           | about as protected as the vaccinated (<1% chance of
           | hospitalization).
           | 
           | If the risk of hospitalization or death was 10%? 30%? Almost
           | everyone would want the vaccine except the real hardcore
           | anti-vaxxers. You wouldn't have to mandate or otherwise
           | coerce people to take something if the threat was that
           | credible generally. Few resist the smallpox vaccine, for
           | example.
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | The threat is very credible. Just as the misinformation and
             | bullshit campaign is very powerful. To the point where even
             | a credible threat isn't enough to get people to act in
             | their own best interest. With odds approaching 1:400 across
             | the whole population of death and substantially higher of a
             | serious bout of disease it is quite amazing how many people
             | continue to downplay this because of the age factor.
             | 
             | If the odds were that good for the lottery I'd be playing.
        
               | hncurious wrote:
               | The fear campaign is very powerful too. People radically
               | overestimate the risk. A large % of the population
               | overestimates it by 48.4%!
               | 
               | "For unvaccinated hospitalization risk, 2% of Democrats
               | responded correctly, compared with 16% of Republicans. In
               | fact, 41% of Democrats replied that at least 50% of
               | unvaccinated people have been hospitalized due to
               | COVID-19."
               | 
               | https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-
               | estimat...
               | 
               | But yes, on the other side of it, if a 60 year old obese
               | person isn't taking the vaccine, they're misinformed too.
               | Their risk benefit analysis is off.
        
               | geekbird wrote:
               | The problem is that many people who think that they are
               | 'healthy' without comorbidities that make covid worse
               | are, quite frankly, deluded.
               | 
               | "Nearly 40% of American adults aged 20 and over are
               | obese. 71.6% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight,
               | including obesity." (National Health and Nutrition
               | Examination Survey, 2017-2018; Harvard School of Public
               | Health, 2020).
               | 
               | So 71.6% of American adults are at elevated risk for
               | severe Covid. Because even just being overweight
               | increases your risk of hospitalization if you get it.
               | 
               | https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e4.htm
               | 
               | So IF the unvaccinated have the same demographic profile
               | as general US adults, then 71.6% have an elevated risk of
               | hospitalization if they catch Covid because they are
               | overweight and unvaccinated.
               | 
               | You will notice that there is no political affiliation in
               | that conclusion. Also, risk is not actuality, and levels
               | of comorbidities vary from person to person, so
               | population risks and personal risks are different.
               | 
               | Now, as to how many have actually had covid and been
               | hospitalized I will admit that there is a perception
               | difference based on political affiliation. But for that
               | data, I will respect the actual statistics, not my
               | perception based on displayed attitudes.
               | 
               | Basically, the problem is that a lot of adults think that
               | they aren't fat, or don't know they have high
               | cholesterol, etc. and are declining the vaccine because
               | they are 'healthy'.
               | 
               | https://www.the-
               | hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/238272/c...
        
           | peddling-brink wrote:
           | Exactly. There's a big difference between, "take this jab,
           | then the scary news thing won't get you" and "you're dying.
           | You can die, or take this jab."
        
           | hackinthebochs wrote:
           | The operative word being treatment rather than prophylaxis.
        
         | anonymouse008 wrote:
         | > Not trying to be cheeky: How many millions of citizens here
         | in the U.S. will abstain from a potential cancer vaccine if
         | based off this research? Would the same religious/tribal
         | objections be held, for example, if the disease to be prevented
         | was cancer vs a virus of unknown origin? Would it still be
         | viewed by so many as a political/big-pharma conspiracy ("But
         | where did the cancer come from?" etc.)?
         | 
         | So this misses the full Covid-19 vaccine critique and provides
         | a disturbing slant instead of the proposed hazards. The
         | specific critique is that the protein chosen in C19 vaccines is
         | in fact dangerous in its own right.
         | 
         | mRNA as a mechanism of delivering a protein to the body is
         | anything but an empirical debate -- the tech works, and works
         | decently well for risk profiles who have no other option. The
         | philosophical / duty of care debate is whether or not the risks
         | associated with mRNA therapies / vaccines are worth the
         | inherent risks.
         | 
         | Equating Covid 19 for the common person as the same as cancer
         | for the common person doesn't appear to balance. If C19 had
         | cancer mortality rates, this pandemic would look drastically
         | different -- with far few people in the room.
        
         | locallost wrote:
         | I think that's less problematic as you can't infect someone
         | with cancer if you have it. But my guess is you are right.
         | Although I will say that suspicious people are occasionally
         | right. Trusting science has a proven track record, but it
         | doesn't have a 100% shooting percentage, so I would be ok with
         | not having a debate there.
        
           | thatguy0900 wrote:
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
           | 
           | You can't infect anyone yet, at least
        
             | stavros wrote:
             | Sure you can, HPV is infectious and causes cervical cancer.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | It can* cause cancer.
               | 
               | Some estimate up to 99% of cervical cancer cases are
               | caused by HPV, but having HPV causes has a lifetime
               | cancer risk of 0.6%.
        
               | mike00632 wrote:
               | The point is that we currently have a vaccine that
               | eradicates those types of cancers but we have very low
               | numbers of people willing to take the vaccine because of
               | cultural hesitancy
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | I would quibble with your definition of "very low", given
               | that the number is >50% in the US.
               | 
               | I agree we have a preventative treatment for a cancer and
               | not everyone takes it. What conclusions do you draw from
               | this point as it relates to this thread (or in general)?
               | 
               | Personally, I'm surprised that uptake is so fast for a
               | relatively new and elective treatment. Even moreso when
               | considering that it addresses a rare disease that effects
               | people many decades later.
        
               | locallost wrote:
               | But that's a virus that can cause cancer. You could
               | theoretically get a cancer vaccine and still transmit HPV
               | if you have it.
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Hmm, what do you mean? Vaccines generally protect you
               | from the disease more than they protect unvaccinated
               | others from you transmitting it.
        
               | locallost wrote:
               | That you still can't infect someone with cancer. But it's
               | not so important.
        
               | throwawayboise wrote:
               | You can transmit it to those you have sex with. That's a
               | pretty narrow means of transmission, and one that is
               | already a vector for a variety of other diseases.
        
           | mrfusion wrote:
           | You're right. If science was never questioned, you would
           | still be drinking cocaine, giving your kids cough syrup laced
           | with heroin, spraying people with DDT, and smoking the
           | cigarette brand your doctor recommended.
        
             | mike00632 wrote:
             | "Science" isn't an authority figure saying what they think
             | is best or a drunk person re-posting misinformation on
             | Facebook. That's the anti-vaxx'ers.
        
         | toolz wrote:
         | I personally don't know anyone that abstains from
         | MMR/polio/chickenpox vaccines. I think this whole anti-anti-
         | vaxxer meme has really got people riled up and ignoring just
         | how many people are already taking vaccines. over 92% of kids
         | have 3 doses of polio vaccine by the time they're 24 months
         | according to the CDC. Something tells me that number gets much
         | higher with just another year or two.
         | 
         | It's a sad day for honest debate when being skeptical of an
         | item gets you labeled as being "anti" an entire category of
         | things to which that item belongs.
         | 
         | To be clear I don't think your question is expressly stating
         | that anti-vaxxers are a big concern, but if there's a genuine
         | concern that a vaccine is well established to work, an
         | incredibly large majority of people take it in the U.S. so I
         | don't think the concern is warranted.
        
           | toyg wrote:
           | We've had clusters of measles in Wales a few years ago, that
           | were due to vaccine scepticism driving down vaccination rates
           | below herd-immunity levels. That was a real event, that took
           | more than a year to correct. And then you have all the circus
           | they've built around COVID19.
           | 
           | Antivaxxers are real, downplaying the risk they pose is
           | dangerous.
        
             | toolz wrote:
             | > downplaying the risk they pose is dangerous
             | 
             | Over-amplifying the risk is dangerous. Wales, according to
             | [1] has had well over 94% MMR vaccination since 2012. The
             | herd immunity threshold for measles is >95%, which is very
             | unique to measles since it's so much more contagious, but
             | to blame anti-vaxxers for that incomplete vaccinated status
             | seems like a likely wrong conclusion. Getting a 100%
             | willing population to 100% vaccination status is _hard_. I
             | see anti-anti-vaxxers everywhere, what I don't see is any
             | evidence or solutions coming from that group, just people
             | whining that "the others" are causing problems.
             | 
             | 1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/380453/mumps-
             | measles-and...
        
           | brokensegue wrote:
           | I personally don't know anyone who voted for Trump. Who you
           | know is not a representative sample. There are lots of
           | vaccine deniers and they occasionally cause problems.
        
             | toolz wrote:
             | which is why I gave stats from the CDC
        
               | brokensegue wrote:
               | 20% of americans polled refuse to get any COVID vaccine.
               | https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1033750072/the-share-of-u-
               | s-a...
               | 
               | That isn't a small amount.
               | 
               | If you don't think this has/will cause at least minimal
               | problems you are mistaken.
        
               | toolz wrote:
               | What are these problems you speak of? We have countries
               | like Gibraltar which has been 100% vaccinated since April
               | of this year, they continue to have case spikes. It's
               | indisputable that the vaccine doesn't prevent
               | transmission and recently in a court of law the Federal
               | government went on record saying it lacked evidence that
               | it even slowed transmission. That's why the courts
               | overruled the CMS vaccine mandates in so many states.
               | 
               | Personally, I think this vaccine has done a great deal of
               | harm reduction and I'm glad people in at-risk categories
               | have access to it, but pretending there is some big
               | social consequence for these people not taking the
               | vaccine is ill-informed. They might be hurting
               | themselves, but literally no one who is alive for the
               | next few years will escape being attacked by covid.
               | Because no one will escape covid, there is no logic
               | behind suggesting people refusing vaccinations is a
               | social consequence. It's a personal consequence alone.
        
           | thinkingemote wrote:
           | People look for an enemy to direct their frustration about
           | the Problem of Evil, chaos, impersonal viruses etc. Classic
           | scapegoat behaviour. the pattern has been repeated throughout
           | history. Usually the scapegoats become at least oppressed.
           | 
           | It's also clear that the authorities are not pushing this
           | meme more than the people. Which is also a characteristic and
           | one where some in charge are capitalising on.
           | 
           | Interestingly its also fear and worry at the root of this is
           | the same as the "antis" and their scapegoat is those above
           | us. Others capitalise on this too.
        
         | throwawayboise wrote:
         | If it demonstrably cures diagnosed cancer I think most people
         | will not hesitate, especially for cancers that have a high
         | mortality and/or few other treatment options.
         | 
         | If it's proposed as a vaccine for cancer that you don't have
         | yet, there would be more hesitancy.
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | The HPV vaccine is proven to prevent cervical, throat, and
           | other cancers. Uptake outside of a few developed countries is
           | woefully low considering the benefit.
           | 
           | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009174352.
           | ..
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | Leader2light wrote:
       | I am so sick of hearing about vaccines. It has been two years. If
       | this shit actually worked well as intended, covid19 would be gone
       | by now.
       | 
       | Instead it is constant moving goalposts and secondary results.
       | 
       | It prevents deaths? We are doing 1000+ deaths a day in the USA.
       | It is a joke.
        
       | airstrike wrote:
       | Everyone seems to be commenting "cancer vaccine" but the article
       | is talking about a treatment
        
         | allemagne wrote:
         | It seems like you really could vaccinate someone against their
         | future cancer using this, assuming you had a time machine and a
         | tumor sample.
        
           | zionic wrote:
           | Why not have:
           | 
           | 1) One of those new blood tests that can detect XX number of
           | cancers before any other type of screening
           | 
           | 2) Synthesize MRNa vaccine against the detected cancer type
           | to kill it early?
        
         | throwawayboise wrote:
         | It's like a vaccine in that it is using/stimulating the immune
         | system to target the cancer.
        
       | NullPrefix wrote:
       | Is this treatment going to be mandatory?
        
         | newsbinator wrote:
         | I hope so! ~50% of people in a developed country get cancer
         | within their lifetime and they cost our healthcare system the
         | most (other than, err, very sick elderly people).
         | 
         | If this works safely and reliably, then this is like doubling
         | or 5x'ing our healthcare budget over 5 years.
         | 
         | I wouldn't mind if people could opt-out of mRNA cancer
         | treatment, but then they have to pay for every other cancer
         | treatment option (and all doctor visits) out of pocket.
        
       | xiphias2 wrote:
       | What is the news here? Also what's the difference between this
       | and Moderna's personalised cancer vaccine?
        
         | smrk007 wrote:
         | My thoughts exactly. According to the Moderna pipeline [0],
         | they're already on phase II trials for their cancer vaccine,
         | which to me seems much more exciting than a proof-of-concept if
         | that's what this is.
         | 
         | [0]: https://www.modernatx.com/pipeline
        
           | f6v wrote:
           | And that's why reproducibility studies aren't a thing. People
           | say "yeah that's old news!" We need to fund independent
           | validation. Especially knowing that private companies could
           | massage the data to get to market.
        
         | ziddoap wrote:
         | I think the news is the fact that a non-profit, non-affiliated
         | (w/ Moderna) organization has additional supporting evidence
         | for mRNA therapy for cancer patients who weren't responding to
         | treatment otherwise.
         | 
         | Not every piece of news needs to shake the world to the core.
        
         | onychomys wrote:
         | This is a treatment, not a vaccine, so it's something you use
         | after you get cancer instead of something you take to prevent
         | you from getting it.
        
           | adamredwoods wrote:
           | Correct it is to help T-cells identify existing cancer cells,
           | because current immunotherapy isn't all that great (cancer
           | cells are tricky!).
           | 
           | >> Next, the researchers employed new sequencing technology
           | that makes a mRNA-based change of primary immune cells
           | possible. They identified the target gene in single-cell RNA-
           | sequencing datasets. Then they performed a functional test to
           | validate the role of the target gene in enhanced immune cell-
           | mediated killing of tumor cells.
           | 
           | This is important because cancer cells have different
           | properties that enable it to sneak past T-cells. So they are
           | trying to identify specific characteristics to tumor cells
           | that enable them to make mRNA that then is used to shape
           | T-cell behavior.
           | 
           | These vaccines can also be used (hopefully) to prevent
           | metastasis, which is the true killer behind most cancers.
           | Getting the body's immune system to respond is key. It could
           | be seen as a prevention against spread in the body.
        
           | xiphias2 wrote:
           | You are right that it's not a vaccine, but you are wrong
           | about the definition of a vaccine. Moderna's personlized
           | cancer vaccine triggers the immune system in a different way
           | than this therapeutic.
           | 
           | ,,Vaccines can be prophylactic (to prevent or ameliorate the
           | effects of a future infection by a natural or "wild"
           | pathogen), or therapeutic (to fight a disease that has
           | already occurred, such as cancer.''
        
         | laura2013 wrote:
         | it could be that this is public research vs private?
         | 
         | It's quite exciting to see this scientific discovery having
         | such widespread use, don't you agree? The research is around
         | the [NKG7 protein][1], not sure what Moderna targets.
         | 
         | [1]:
         | https://cancerimmunolres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2021...
        
           | xiphias2 wrote:
           | Sure the more therapeutics use modern platforms, the better
           | it is for humanity, I just wish these articles were written
           | more similar to how a human would want me to understand the
           | differences between approaches instead of trying to make a PR
           | article.
           | 
           | It's a bug deal that they found out about the importance of
           | the NKG7 gene, but the whole article doesn't have a reference
           | to it.
           | 
           | Moderna's personal vaccine is different, as it sequences the
           | cancer itself as far as I know.
        
       | ren_engineer wrote:
       | seems like Covid might end up having a WWII like impact on some
       | technologies. Tons of accelerated R&D triggered by a massive
       | crisis. Would be nice if we could salvage something good out of a
       | bad situation
        
         | throwawaymanbot wrote:
         | Spot on!!
        
         | tonmoy wrote:
         | The mRNA research was already very well underway before the
         | pandemic. In fact the COVID vaccines were low hanging fruit.
        
           | malermeister wrote:
           | I would imagine there's a lot more capital going around in
           | that industry now though :)
        
             | mikepurvis wrote:
             | Capital and also just straight up mindshare. How many
             | people would have had any idea what mRNA was two years ago?
             | Now it's a kitchen table thing, everyone's seen a dozen
             | explainers on what the basic idea is and how it works. It's
             | firmly associated with new technology, agility, and highly
             | effective vaccination.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | Unfortunately, it is also at times oversold and this will
               | do a lot of damage. Vaccines are regularly hyped as
               | miracle medication which in turn causes people to stop
               | following lots of other common sense rules, rather than
               | as one arrow in a whole quiver of tools.
        
               | mikepurvis wrote:
               | Oh definitely, and there's for sure also the likelihood
               | of the name being hijacked for other technologies that
               | are only peripherally related. See also the zillions of
               | cheapo air purifiers prominently branded to contain "HEPA
               | type" filtration.
        
           | newsclues wrote:
           | How long before they would have been commercialized without
           | an epidemic?
           | 
           | Now, is there people greedy enough to start a pandemic or
           | allow it to occur, to accelerate the pay off of this new
           | technology? (I guess there is financial and medical
           | technology incentives to accelerate mRNA technology)
        
             | spaetzleesser wrote:
             | The pandemic gave it the final push in the same way WW2
             | gave nuclear weapons the last push and the cold war gave
             | rocketry the final push. In all these cases it was pretty
             | well understood that it can work but there were a ton of
             | engineering obstacles to overcome.
        
             | zeven7 wrote:
             | Now that's a movie I'd watch
        
             | junon wrote:
             | > Now, is there people greedy enough to start a pandemic or
             | allow it to occur, to accelerate the pay off of this new
             | technology?
             | 
             | Nobody that would directly profit off of it, no. This is
             | conspiracy talk.
        
           | xiphias2 wrote:
           | Why are you so sure about that? From what I saw in last
           | year's Moderna presentation on R&D day they ramped up
           | vaccines for other infections _because_ it worked so well for
           | COVID, but they were focusing more on therapeutics before, as
           | they thought there's more money in it and less in preventing
           | infections with vaccines.
        
         | FredPret wrote:
         | We usually do!
         | 
         | Hunger, sabre-tooth tigers, malaria, war: everything seems to
         | make civilization stronger in the end
        
           | yakshaving_jgt wrote:
           | The very definition of survivorship bias :)
        
             | newsbinator wrote:
             | Some version of the anthropic principle?
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle
        
             | FredPret wrote:
             | Reality has a survivorship bias. That's the idea of
             | Nietzsche's Will to Power.
        
             | wongarsu wrote:
             | What doesn't kill your civilization makes it stronger (or
             | cripples it enough that it slowly fades into irrelevance,
             | with nobody agreeing on the exact cause)
        
               | marcosdumay wrote:
               | Solving problems makes your civilization stronger.
               | Letting them around while you learn to cope makes it
               | weaker.
               | 
               | Nobody agrees on the exact cause because when one is weak
               | enough to fade into irrelevance, there are way too many
               | of those unsolved problems.
        
         | cblconfederate wrote:
         | So you are saying that one way to solve a problem quick is to
         | create a pandemic around it ... hmm
         | 
         | I think the most important takeaway from the pandemic is that
         | accelerated phase 2/3 trials will become the norm
        
           | onychomys wrote:
           | It should probably be noted here that for the mRNA vaccines,
           | the only reason that the trials seemed accelerated is that
           | they were able to find so many infected participants, and so
           | were able to reach their stated endpoints more quickly.
        
             | xiphias2 wrote:
             | I'm not so sure about that. People worked all day and night
             | and through weekends, were much more flexible with
             | streaming data instead of getting it in one big package
             | after it all arrived. I'm extremely thankful for all people
             | who took part in letting me seeing my parents again without
             | masks.
        
           | ksd482 wrote:
           | I don't think that's what he/she is saying. How did you infer
           | that?
           | 
           | What he's/she's saying is how to make the best out of a
           | crisis after the fact.
        
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