Recommendable! The story of the super fast in record speed development of a Covid-19 vaccine is truly stunning! More than 20 years of research finally paid off big time! It will have many amazing future developments coming from it! Untold possibilities!
We ought to be very thankful to President Trump, who made this possible against all odds and resistance! Unfortunately, the very long article does not mention Trump even once! Very disingenuous and dishonest by the MIT Technology Review!
" ... In the near future, researchers believe, shots that deliver temporary instructions into cells could lead to vaccines against herpes and malaria, better flu vaccines, and, if the covid-19 germ keeps mutating, updated coronavirus vaccinations, too. ... They think the technology will permit cheap gene fixes for cancer, sickle-cell disease, and maybe even HIV. ...
Despite those two decades of research, though, messenger RNA had never been used in any marketed drug before last year. ...
Scientists at Moderna, a biotech specializing in messenger RNA, were able to design a vaccine on paper [???] in 48 hours, 11 days before the US even had its first recorded case. Inside of six weeks, Moderna had chilled doses ready for tests in animals. ...
The eureka moment was when the two scientists determined they could avoid the immune reaction [severe cytokine storm] by using chemically modified building blocks to make the RNA. ...
A second major question was how to package the delicate RNA molecules, which last for only a couple of minutes if exposed. ... tried 40 different carriers, including water droplets, sugar, and proteins from salmon sperm. ... Most promising were nanoparticles made from a mixture of fats. But these were secret commercial inventions and are still the basis of patent disputes. ... until 2014, after half a decade of attempts. ...
that most vaccines lose money. The reason is that many shots sell for a “fraction of their economic value.” Governments will pay $100,000 for a cancer drug that adds a month to a person’s life but only want to pay $5 for a vaccine that can protect against an infectious disease for good. ...
The shots from Moderna and BioNTech proved effective by December [2020] and were authorized that month in the US. ...
There are some side effects, but both shots are about 95% effective (that is, they stop 95 out of 100 cases), a record so far unmatched by other covid-19 vaccines and far better than the performance of flu vaccines. Another injection, made by AstraZeneca using an engineered cold virus, is around 75% effective. A shot developed in China using deactivated covid-19 germs protected only half the people who got it, although it did stop severe disease. ...
The potency of the shots, and the ease with which they can be reprogrammed, mean researchers are already preparing to go after HIV, herpes, infant respiratory virus, and malaria—all diseases for which there’s no successful vaccine. Also on the drawing board: “universal” flu vaccine ...
Despite those two decades of research, though, messenger RNA had never been used in any marketed drug before last year. ...
Scientists at Moderna, a biotech specializing in messenger RNA, were able to design a vaccine on paper [???] in 48 hours, 11 days before the US even had its first recorded case. Inside of six weeks, Moderna had chilled doses ready for tests in animals. ...
The eureka moment was when the two scientists determined they could avoid the immune reaction [severe cytokine storm] by using chemically modified building blocks to make the RNA. ...
A second major question was how to package the delicate RNA molecules, which last for only a couple of minutes if exposed. ... tried 40 different carriers, including water droplets, sugar, and proteins from salmon sperm. ... Most promising were nanoparticles made from a mixture of fats. But these were secret commercial inventions and are still the basis of patent disputes. ... until 2014, after half a decade of attempts. ...
that most vaccines lose money. The reason is that many shots sell for a “fraction of their economic value.” Governments will pay $100,000 for a cancer drug that adds a month to a person’s life but only want to pay $5 for a vaccine that can protect against an infectious disease for good. ...
The shots from Moderna and BioNTech proved effective by December [2020] and were authorized that month in the US. ...
There are some side effects, but both shots are about 95% effective (that is, they stop 95 out of 100 cases), a record so far unmatched by other covid-19 vaccines and far better than the performance of flu vaccines. Another injection, made by AstraZeneca using an engineered cold virus, is around 75% effective. A shot developed in China using deactivated covid-19 germs protected only half the people who got it, although it did stop severe disease. ...
The potency of the shots, and the ease with which they can be reprogrammed, mean researchers are already preparing to go after HIV, herpes, infant respiratory virus, and malaria—all diseases for which there’s no successful vaccine. Also on the drawing board: “universal” flu vaccine ...
Last spring, ... began petitioning the government to pay for vast manufacturing centers to make messenger RNA. ... to churn out shots during the next pandemic. ... in April, ... Later that month, as part of Operation Warp Speed, the US effort to produce the vaccines, Moderna was effectively picked as a national champion to build such centers. The government handed it nearly $500 million to develop its vaccine and expand manufacturing. ..."
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