> Can't remember where I read it, but the idea was that using existing vaccine tech to knock out pretty much any virus is a major financial undertaking. Now multiply that by 100x, or however many common-cold-causing viruses exist.
It seems quite strange to me that this should be multiplicative. There should be some economics of scale, especially for viruses from the same family.
(It is also quite strange to me that the SARS-2 vaccine takes some long, as if we have to invent the vaccine technology from scratch. But granted, I don't know much about this field. Maybe it is not a technology problem but mostly testing and approval)
There are no coronavirus vaccines; prior to the year 2002 that’s because coronaviruses were relatively harmless in humans and thus not deemed a threat. Post 2002 it is because we didn’t heed the warning of SARS and invest seriously in creating one (and it’s hard to develop a vaccine for a disease that isn’t around anymore).
For the “common cold” vaccine, you’re looking at hundreds of strains across about nine types of virus, so a pretty tall order using traditional approaches.
> For the “common cold” vaccine, you’re looking at hundreds of strains across about nine types of virus, so a pretty tall order using traditional approaches.
A couple of hundred does seems tall at all, especially when it is basically just 9 different types. It seems to me that this is easy to scale once a general approach is found.
But since there is basically no progress on the common cold, I assume it is just not solved for any of these families, so the total number of strains or families doesnt matter anyway. Or it is mutating faster than we do anything. But I dont get how a small number like couple of hundred should matter - at least from the technogical perspective.
It seems quite strange to me that this should be multiplicative. There should be some economics of scale, especially for viruses from the same family.
(It is also quite strange to me that the SARS-2 vaccine takes some long, as if we have to invent the vaccine technology from scratch. But granted, I don't know much about this field. Maybe it is not a technology problem but mostly testing and approval)