[ExI] uv as an antiviral

Sat Nov 12 04:58:46 UTC 2022

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] uv as an antiviral

On Sat, 12 Nov 2022 at 07:27, spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

From: spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com>  <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > 
Subject: uv as an antiviral

>>>...BillK, regarding that UV light business... that's why we call it
research, rather than refind.  spike

>>…BillK my apologies for belaboring this point, but I had a new wacky idea.

>>…Recall that when the mRNA vaccines became available in 2020, other wacky lines of research were abandoned.  We had the vaccine, hooray!  But then...we found out …

>…Why couldn't they just fix it without all the mucking around? Why not sack them all and put competent people in their place?

-- 

Stathis Papaioannou

Stathis I have a notion that when a technique was discovered to make generate mRNA, the whole idea was just so damn sexy we could scarcely help being seduced by it.  It sure looked to me like if we could defeat one virus that way, we could defeat all of them the same way.  A new strain of flu comes along every season.  We grab it as soon as the first cases show up, read the RNA, synthesize a bunch of it, poke it in everybody’s arm, no flu season that year.  Then once we get that one, down goes chicken pox, measles, shingles, herpes, ebola, AIDS becomes an unpleasant memory, the common cold becomes the uncommon cold because it is seldom seen.  

Would not we be the new Jonas Salk?  The modern Alexander Fleming?  We were the generation who finally made the big breakthrough.  Sure, let’s have a huge victory party celebrating how awesome we are.  But then… oopsies, reality messed up everything.  The immune system didn’t seem to know or care there is a vaccine here to offer it training.  It didn’t get any better at making the right T cells.  But sure, the immune system is willing, eager to hand over that task of fighting covid if we are ready to take it over.  And if we do, it doesn’t want its former job back.

There was nothing wrong with the people.  We were collectively seduced by a sexy idea, but wasn’t quite right.  The history of science is filled with similar examples.

I haven’t given up on getting an mRNA vaccine which does train the immune system.  It was elation followed by disappointment, but overall good has come of it.  We all learned so much about immunology, learned a lot about civics, learned a lotta about a lotta.

spike

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