mRNA flu vaccines are being researched

[MillCreek]

The same mRNA technology used for COVID vaccine is now being studied for flu vaccines.  This may lead to more effective flu vaccines that can be manufactured faster.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/science/mrna-flu-vaccines.html

[zxcvbob]

I'm hoping they can come up with a vaccine for melanoma.  Or pancreatic cancer. (etc)  For people who already have cancer.  It should be possible.

[JTHunter]

This may lead to more eff0ective flu vaccines that can be manufactured faster.

Doubtful considering the current history of problems with this mRNA "cocktail".

[Fly320s]

Doubtful considering the current history of problems with this mRNA "cocktail".

I guess that depends on one's definition of vaccine and effective.

I've always defined vaccine as "preventing a person from getting the disease," as opposed to "reducing the severity/symptoms."

[dogmush]

Current flu vaccines are between 40% and 60% effective at preventing the disease.  And that's only in years where the vacci e is well matched to the prevalent flu variant.

Shouldn't be too hard to improve on that.

I've always defined vaccine as "preventing a person from getting the disease," as opposed to "reducing the severity/symptoms."

Not to pick on Fly320s, apparently a lot of people thought this, but it's  a fundamental misunderstanding on how vaccines work. Vaccines and illnesses are not binary get it or don't  situations. Vaccines make your immune system better at fighting a pathogen,  but a huge dose of pathogen,  or wierd variant, or just bad luck can all contribute to you getting a disease anyway.

[Fly320s]

Not to pick on Fly320s, apparently a lot of people thought this, but it's  a fundamental misunderstanding on how vaccines work. Vaccines and illnesses are not binary get it or don't  situations. Vaccines make your immune system better at fighting a pathogen,  but a huge dose of pathogen,  or wierd variant, or just bad luck can all contribute to you getting a disease anyway.

That's interesting.  It makes sense that the seasonal Flu gets through the vaccine defense, because the Flu has many variants and it is always mutating.  Then we have vaccines for diseases like Polio, where it seems to be 100% effective at preventing the disease, not just lessening the symptoms.

[dogmush]

Polio is one of the more successful  vaccines (smallpox being the other really successful one) but a big portion of it's efficacy is that it has made it so people  aren't really exposed to polio anymore. It's pretty rare, at least in the west.

Here's the info sheet on it:https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/effectiveness-duration-protection.html

I checked my shot record and the Army decided I was vaccinated against Polio after two doses, so I guess 90% is good enough.  Note the 99-100% efficacy fades with time, but they haven't studied how quickly.