US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants

PVW

Dec 22, 2021 at 10:51pm

This looks promising:

US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants, Researchers Say (Defense One)

Within weeks, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to announce that they have developed a vaccine that is effective against COVID-19 and all its variants, even Omicron, as well as previous SARS-origin viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide.

I don't know much about this -- not even the publication that this story is from (saw this via a Slate article wrapped in a lot more snark and partisanship than I really thought necessary), so hoping some of the posters here who actually follow this stuff can provide more details, but a vaccine that's effective against a broad range of coroanviruses, including current and potential SARV_COV_2 variants, would be really fantastic.

dave

Dec 23, 2021 at 12:20am

It would be nice to have a patent-free version of this for global production with WHO oversight.

Steve

Dec 23, 2021 at 8:26am

dave said:
It would be nice to have a patent-free version of this for global production with WHO oversight.

You must missed this part: The next step is seeing how the new pan-coronavirus vaccine interacts with people who were previously vaccinated or previously sick. Walter Reed is working with a yet-to-be-named industry partner for that wider rollout.

Someone is going to rich (again) off of the government's work. Question is only who has the best lobbyists.

susan1014

Dec 23, 2021 at 10:42pm

To me the description sounded a bit strange… some sort of 20 or 24 sided protein thing with a different antigen spike protein sticking out of each face. Might be wonderful, might be too complicated to use (do all of the antigens work at equivalent concentrations?). Getting to the point that they are at is a very first step, and they will need a Pharma partner for the extensive work still to be done. If you don’t want the partner to be allowed to make a profit, then they will have trouble finding one - the government should cut a deal that includes cheap versions for foreign aid if it works, but they need to allow a partner to make this a business decision or spend our taxes building an equivalent capability at the NIH (which I suspect would be slow and expensive).