Updating Coronavirus Vaccines Is Good, But a Universal Coronavirus Vaccine Would Be Better

Time for a new Operation Warp Speed?

Coronavirus vaccines should be updated to address omicron BA.4/5 coronavirus variants that are rapidly becoming the dominant strains around the world, including in the U.S. This was the conclusion reached by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) panel of independent experts on the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. The modified vaccines would add an omicron BA.4/5 spike protein component to the current vaccine composition to create a two-component (bivalent) booster vaccine that would be available around October.

Instead of requiring manufacturers to engage in long and drawn-out clinical trials before approving the booster shots, the FDA is taking advantage of the drugmakers' ability to rapidly modify the new mRNA vaccines as the virus evolves. This approval process is similar to the way through which annual flu shots are updated.

Even better than updated vaccines would be a universal coronavirus vaccine. There are already several projects aiming to achieve that goal. During a recent investor presentation, the Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration suggested that it planned to begin testing a pan-coronavirus vaccine later this year. Considering the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic and the possibility that it could evolve further in deleterious ways, another Operation Warp Speed aimed at speeding the development and deployment of a pan-coronavirus vaccine would be useful.

Comments

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

My company just reinstated a mask mandate due to national alarming rise in cases.

[Longtobefree]

Real masks, properly fitted and never removed or touched, or just cloth pacifiers?
For a good time, go into HR and ask if they did an environmental impact study on all those discarded masks.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Something that covers the face.

[Nardz]

Embrace it.
Go with a Scream mask, or Jigsaw, or Reagan or something.
Depending on how it's worded, maybe a Zorro or some other type of mask that covers the wrong part of your face.

[mad.casual]

Just put on a yellow zoot suit and fedora and paint your face green. Ssssmokin'!

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[JFree]

Maybe you shouldn't be working for a mask maker.

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[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

the FDA is taking advantage of the drugmakers' ability to rapidly modify the new mRNA vaccines as the virus evolves.

What rapid ability to modify mRNA vaccines as the virus evolves?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

guys, we're two years into this:

Omicron-specific Covid vaccines could finally be here this fall—here’s what you need to know
Published Fri, Jul 1 202212:30 PM EDT

[Nardz]

Well, since the vaccine doesn't prevent covid, and there's no evidence it reduces symptoms, the bar is set about as low as possible

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[JFree]

Omicron is six months old. The two recent variants (4 and 5) that account for current case growth are less than four months old.

[ElvisIsReal]

But you'll notice that we stopped going through the alphabet and now everything is an "omi subvariant" so that people will still think they are getting up-to-date vaccines.

[JFree]

The lineages and Greek letters rules are only partly a political designation. Namely, whenever a new group of clades, mutations, etc creates a new variant of concern (basically a semi-political designation of how likely is this strain to overwhelm hospitals) a new Greek letter will be used as shorthand for - B.1.1.529 (also GR/484A) (also 21K and 21L).

I have no faith that CDC will do a damn thing about epidemiology beyond vaccines. But then - they don't do public health either.

[Zeb]

And as soon as a variant specific vaccine comes out, which we know will also be very leaky, a new variant will emerge that the vaccines are even less effective for.
These vaccines probably have some utility for people who are at very high risk. But trying to mass vaccinate with what we know now is just playing whack-a-mole.

[JFree]

In the US, we have about 96% of the population that has been vaccinated and/or infected. The low-hanging fruit has long since fallen to the ground and rotted. I agree that this is now - here - mainly a medical issue for the elderly or immuno-compromised.

If we aren't going to do actual tracking of the disease in populations that may be much more vulnerable (mainly Africa now), and we ain't going to focus on the rather indirect but important covid issue of helping America lose its insulin resistance, then the story is over and CDC should once again focus on eating broccoli (since DeRps aren't interested in gutting and overhauling the CDC).

[Moo Cow]

The hoax virus. You know. The one that disappeared January 2021.

No vaccines. Shut them down.

[Entelechy]

Ron pines for the glory days of operation warp speed, when even the President could contribute to the advancement of science:
https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2020/04/white-house-launches-strategic-virus.html

[Cronut]

Dear Ron,

The havoc was not from coronavirus. It was from the government's authoritarian response to coronavirus. Omicron is basically a bad cold.

Operation Warp Speed 2 would not be useful at all. If there's a market for an omicron vaccine or a universal vaccine, the drug companies can finance its development themselves and then sell it.

[Overt]

^ This.

[JohannesDinkle]

Coronavirus is of the same class as the rhinovirus - the common cold. It mutates faster than any possible vaccine could be developed, which is why there is not and probably will never be a vaccine for colds.
Get over it and move on with life.

[Untermensch]

A. Coronaviruses and rhinoviruses are not in the “same class” (whatever you mean by that). They are completely different types of viruses.

B. Even if they were, that tells you nothing. The viruses behind genital warts and chickenpox are both actually in the same class (herpesviruses), but that doesn't tell you anything about what they cause or how to treat them.

So your statement is both false and pointless.

[mad.casual]

I'd agree with false. Pointless not so much. There is some minimal point at which the continual chorus of trumpets sounding and heaven's parting as mRNA technology descends on clouds ceases to play. Not nearly every infectious disease can be treated with mRNA, especially if you actually do consider balance of harm. Moreover, regardless of mRNA, there's a minimum amount of time and logistics that does and should go into isolating the disease, testing it, and ramping up production and distribution that has nothing to do with mRNA and for which any given virus or mutation gives zero shits. Even the clinical community was noting that the vaccines weren't necessarily as effective at driving down numbers and getting people inoculated as more virulent but less severe strains.

"We need more mRNA now!" is The Dopeler Effect (bad ideas sound more intelligent when travelling at faster speeds) as policy.

[Zeb]

HPV is not a herpes virus. But otherwise, yeah. Ignorant declarations of non-fact aren't helping.

[retiredfire]

"JohannesDinkle has it exactly right.

[JasonAZ]

"If there's a market for an omicron vaccine or a universal vaccine, the drug companies can finance its development themselves and then sell it."

Seems like this would be the appropriate position for a real Libertarian website. Think about it Ron.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

There are already several projects aiming to achieve that goal. During a recent investor presentation, the Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration suggested that it planned to begin testing a pan-coronavirus vaccine later this year.

Will it be delivered by drone or self-driving car?

Considering the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic

You mean the havok wreaked by the response to the coronoavirus pandemic, right?

[Joe Brandon Tea-Dee-ess]

"This approval process is similar to the way through which annual flu shots are updated."

if only all of Covid was handled like the flu, world might not be as insanely fucked as it is now.

[JesseAz]

Reminder. The flu shot is the best guess at the dominant strain of the year. It does not cover all strains. And they fail to predict the dominant one 60% of the time.

[Minadin]

I thought they usually put a mix of flu vaccines in one dose at a ratio of something like:

60% Guess Strain 1
25% Guess Strain 2
15% Guess Strain 3

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

And as I'm going through my morning news ritual, wow that Ruble is in freefall, eh? The entire Russian military is stalled out on the road to Kyifffffffffffuh, and the end is nigh for Putin!

[Nardz]

Another 100 billion should get the job done, but let's go 500 billion just to be safe

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1542943828654555136?t=rb3pkPehxzgfqmuEZzqjZg&s=19

Welp, we're giving another $820 million to Ukraine. America has given more money to Ukraine in five months than we spent in the first year of the Iraq War and the first two years of the Afghanistan War

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I'm not sure about another "Operation Warp Speed", but a new vaccine would certainly be useful.

[Mother's Lament]

"but a new vaccine would certainly be useful"

I bet!

[Longtobefree]

There will never be another Operation Warp Speed as long as any democrat breathes. That was a Trump idea, and even worse, it worked.
So never again!!!

[Longtobefree]

Come on Rin, this is a libertarian web site, and no one should be advocating for governmental actions.

[Squirrelloid]

This. The profit motive should be sufficient to drive drug companies to make better products.

[Dillinger]

how about instead we treat it like the cold it has been reduced to and stop getting shots altogether

[Zeb]

Hey, Ron Bailey, how about some analysis of what the many smart "open source" researchers out there are finding in data about the vaccines and the covid response in general? There are a lot of reasons to question the wisdom of mass vaccination with a poorly tested drug that we have no idea of the long term effects of.
I get you are a technological optimist and want this to work, but I think you are missing a lot that you should be covering as a supposed libertarian science writer.

[Overt]

OT: When libertarians say, "well I guess it is ok if the government is just asking for disclosure. What's wrong with ensuring transparency."

https://www.fb.org/market-intel/overreach-of-sec-proposed-climate-rule-could-hurt-agriculture

The new ESG requirements from the SEC for disclosure rules are going to harm small businesses. Easy enough for big giant companies to do this stuff, but if a public entity works with a small farm, that farm now has similar disclosure requirements thrust upon them.

[Cronut]

But Jeff said ESGs were NBD and we shouldn't worry about them.

[JesseAz]

Well jeff is a strong supporter of fascism, so...

[Moonrocks]

When libertarians say...

When do libertarians say that?

[ErinS]

This is just doubling down on a failed experiment. The m-RNA vaccines do so little as to make the risk/reward too great. The numbers that are spiking right now are because a lot of people stayed highly quarantined and now that they had their second booster, fourth vaccine, they felt okay going to an event. And a ton of those people got the virus.

I think you have to have a screw loose if you're going to keep getting three or four newly released vaccines annually to prevent an illness that isn't a big deal at this point. It's okay to re-evaluate and change course.

[Zeb]

And a lot of vaccinated people are getting it repeatedly. Which suggests more than a behavior change behind the increased infections.

[Nardz]

C'mon, it's just a little myocarditis. And the vaccine doesn't increase your susceptibility to catching covid by that much. And I'm sure the increase in mortality rates since mass vaccinations started taking place is a coincidence...

[Eeyore]

If you believe that a universal vaccine is possible - I have limitless cold fusion technology to sell you. The only universal vaccine I know of is a bullet to the head.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Right after this becomes reality I will use my personal nuclear fusion reactor to charge my iron-oxide battery, so I can take my fling car to work

[JesseAz]

And everyone being a millionaire would be good.

The problem is evolutionary pressure works on viruses as well.

Bailey, please get off the science beat.

[Mr. Bumble]

How about a universal bullshit vaccine for Reason readers?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Seeing as they compleatly believe the j6 show trial how about a bs vaccine for reason editors?

[mad.casual]

The market demands an 'Mute Article' button!

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Why does this feel like the notes Bailey jotted down when he woke up in the middle of the night? Where's the article that fleshes all this out?

[Spinach Chin]

Since the currently available vaccine is not even the one that was approved by the FDA, that would be interesting indeed

[Mr. Bumble]

Articles like this are what happens when you legalize weed.

[I, Woodchipper]

Universal Coronavirus Vaccine Would Be Better

Wouldn't it be nice! Science fiction wishes are great to imagine.

[Zeb]

Why not just go for the universal cure for everything? The singularity is almost here, right?

[Naime Bond]

Not a chance. We've studied the flu for 100 years - no vaccine yet and we had the usual 20 million dying world wide from the flu during the 2018 2019 flu season. The question we should be asking is whether natural immunity, HCQ and other protocols and treatments censored by the media, would have been a better course to take.

[NOYB2]

Updating Coronavirus Vaccines Is Good

Particularly for Pfizer's profits! Make vaccinations mandatory, right?

But a Universal Coronavirus Vaccine Would Be Better

Why not throw a free pony for everybody! You tell scientists what you want, and it magically appears!

Time for a new Operation Warp Speed?

Nothing say "libertarianism" like calling for government to create large programs to achieve desired scientific outcomes and exempting drug manufacturers from civil responsibility and liability for their products!

Seriously, Bailey, why do you even try to pretend that you're a libertarian?

[mad.casual]

Time for a new Operation Warp Speed?

Wow. Not even a declaration of 'the numbers are rising' or 'the curve needs flattening'. Just straight up "Let's take authoritarian emergency action despite there not being an actual emergency."

Remember when Ron used to worry about authoritarians using emergency powers under a banner of false caution to impose their will people? Neither do I.

[mad.casual]

Whoops! Not exactly meant in reply.

[Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)]

COVID is not an existential threat. The vast majority of the people who are vulnerable were still more likely to die from heart disease, diabetes or just old age even at the height of its spread. Meanwhile, the Spanish flu was just as contagious, much more deadly, killed healthy people of breeding age, and does not have an effective vaccine 100 years later.

Why are we even talking about this?

[Iridium]

How severe is COVID on the second go around? Because everyone will have had COVID at least once by the time a universal COVID vaccine comes out.

I think I'd rather have a universal flu vaccine. Surviving one won't mean the next infection won't get you. And it has proven to have decades of staying power. Meanwhile, COVID seems to be losing steam on the deaths front, even while it figures out how to keep infecting people.

[NOYB2]

How severe is COVID on the second go around?

You mean what progress has Wuhan made on COVID v2.0?

[Zeb]

I thought this one was 2.0. Version 1 burned itself out too fast.

[NOYB2]

I think so far we've had v1.1 and v1.2; backwards compatible, you know. Old vaccines still work with it.

Like a good, evil software company, they need to force an upgrade with backwards incompatibility.

[Zeb]

I was thinking of OG SARS. But maybe that was version 0.1.

[Jeff Mason]

A “pan-coronavirus” vaccine is a pipe dream. We’ll get it the day after they cure the common cold. Coronavirus- like the common cold and the flu - mutate constantly so they have no clue how to design a vaccine to work against future strains because no one can predict what they will look like. Better to lose weight, exercise and eat healthier so you can better fight the next COVID variant when it pops up. But then that requires actual work.

[Scientist]

Will there ever be "informed consent" for this experimental drug? If you're a vaccine believer and trust "science", you owe yourself to be more science informed. Start with the most recent New England Journal of Medicine results of a population sample of 100,000 infected and non-infected people (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2203965?query=featured_home).
1) Individuals who recieved two does of either Pfizer or Moderna vax, and had NOT been previously infected, had NEGATIVE immunity against both Omicron variants (4 or 10% higher infection rates). Yes, an increased risk of infection compared to those who have not ever been previously infected and vaccinated.
2) People who had previously been infected have 50% immunity (to Omicron variants) even at 300 days after infection (unlike a few months with every MRNA shot).
3) People who had 3 Pfizer shots had 50+% immunity but it was short lived (only measured out to 42 days)
4) Previous infection or previous infection with vaccine (up to 70% effective - the best) were the best protections.
If you're not high risk, the low risk mild Omicron infection is your best option and you should skip the experimental risks.

[nobody 2]

It's weird how Bailey is acting like nobody has learned anything about the experimental vaccines in the time they've been available. At this point it's like reading an article about how great smoking is for your health.

[Scott M Sykes]

As a former Nuclear Biological and Chemical NCO at Fort Bragg, NC I can tell you TRUTHFULLY that you CANNOT vaccinate against a BIOLOGICAL AGENT. The DOD tried to do it with Anthrax and that was a joke. All they did was put Anthrax poison in all of us in the military.
COVID-19 started out as a natural pathogen just like Anthrax and Racine but when the lab in Wuhan got and manipulated the makeup of that pathogen it was NO LONGER NATURAL. You can TREAT the bio agent as long as you have the right antidote but you will NEVER BE ABLE TO VACCINATE AGAINST IT. Hence the reason WHY so many out there who have BEEN VACCINATED AND BOOSTED HAVE STILL COME DOWN WITH IT AND EVEN MORE THAN ONCE.
Keep drinking the Kool Aid Jonestown and like the original drinkers you will end up ALL as bloated bodies laying out in the sun for the crows and magpies and animals and insects to eat.

[DefineReasonable]

NO THANK YOU!!!!!

Why would such a moronic idea even be suggested? Operation warp speed was a failure once already. This insanity must stop!

[Liberty Lover]

no mRNA vaccine will ever go into my arm. We have traditional dead vector vaccines, even for covid.
Dr. Robert Malone discovered in-vitro and in-vivo RNA transfection and invented mRNA platform technology while he was at the Salk Institute in 1988. He is thus, the father of the modern mRNA vaccine technology, and he has spoken out against its recent misuse in the COVID-19 pandemic.