[extropy-chat] The Hidden Luddite was Re: peak oil debate

[The Avantguardian]

--- Gary Miller <aiguy at comcast.net> wrote:

>  
> Actually a vaccine that prevents the disease in the
> first place would be the
> bigger money maker and result in the least risk of
> the disease continuing
> it's spread.
> 
> In that way you don't limit your customers to those
> who already have the
> disease but rather a much larger group of the
> general population that would
> have reason to fear accidently contracting the
> disease.
> 
> More importantly the larger potential earnings
> serves as a larger financial
> incentive to the drug companies to perform research.
> 

You would think so wouldn't you? The truth, however,
from an insider's POV, is that nobody in the U.S. that
I am aware of is working on a prophylactic vaccine.
The vaccines which are out and being tested (none are
that impressive) are all therapeutic vaccines for use
with people who are already infected. There was a some
buzz a few years ago about european vaccine that used
an attenuated virus with a deleted nef gene, but
apparently it was still capable of causing AIDS. But
like I said, in the U.S., I am unaware of any at all. 

Aside from the economic luddism I metioned, I am not
sure why this is the case. But another large factor
has to do with the technical challenge of testing it.
Apparently, the day that you can grab some kid at risk
of infection off the street and test your experimental
vaccine on him as Louis Pasteur did is long gone.





The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

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