US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants, Researchers Say
Within weeks, Walter Reed researchers expect to announce that human trials show success against Omicron—and even future strains.
Hopefully this vaccine is a game-changer, though the mRNA vaccines already have been too. Amazing we are here to complain about our antibody levels eventually going down or how much a variant might escape neutralizing immunity and possibly make us a little ill. I think back to Summer 2020 when no hope was in sight.
It sounds like it targets an antigen common to that family of corona viruses, so it may protect against some common colds too.
@Buttercup I’m not sure about a conserved epitope being targeted. The article says: “Unlike existing vaccines, Walter Reed’s SpFN uses a soccer ball-shaped protein with 24 faces for its vaccine, which allows scientists to attach the spikes of multiple coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein.”
Maybe they just plug in different spikes for a range of lymphocyte receptor specificities?
I wonder how long-lived the immunity will be. Symptom preventing mucosal immunity against respiratory viruses seems more in the months to a year range typically though cued memory cells that can ramp up may last longer.
If this was fully created by the Army, perhaps
a) it will be free of the patent and big pharma entanglements of other vaccines
b) it can be created easily and cheaply, other nations can produce the millions of doses they need.