My issue is that all the current vaccines on the childhood schedule are for non-coronavirus pathogens. Every one.
Is it possible to combat coronaviruses with a vaccine?
IDK.
Do they mutate too quickly? Is that the issue? IDK.
I commend the Novavax makers for trying, but perhaps, if it doesn’t work, we do not have the technical means of producing a workable vaccine against SARS-CoV-II.
There’s nothing wrong to admitting to that.
I am not a doctor. But we are out of the pandemic stage. We've achieved herd immunity. But covid-19 will continue infecting us forever and if you are elderly, it may ultimately kill you.
That was one of the selling points for mRNA vaccine. The mRNA could be synthesized quickly and there was a theoretical quicker time to develop a way to get endogenous antibody to spike proteins.
I suppose it could be just as quick to grow covid 19 in viral culture...completely destroy or break it apart and use it as a vaccine...big problem is that you.may not have inactivated all of the viruses...apparently novavaxx had moth cells manufacture a slightly altered spike protein which was used as a component of their vaccine. At least they didn’t make a human recipient make the spike protein in their own body.
Vaccines can not “prevent” infection. If you inhale a load of virus, nothing can stop it from lodging itself in respiratory track including lungs. Vaccines come into play to help combat the invading virus by creating extra stock of anti-bodies.
If the vaccine is specific to the spike protein it will do well against that strain. If you remember, the original two doses from pfizer practically eliminated the original variant. Masks were off. People were mingling freely. Life was starting to return to normal. Then in the summer of 2021 the next major variant Delta hit and the vaccines lost some of their effectivness.
Because it's a moving target I don't think vaccines will completely eliminate covid but hopefully will continue to degenerate into less harmful strains and at best become a nuisance. Vaccines should still help prevent severe disease. Speaking from personal experience I was vaxxed with the two original doses from pfizer in the spring of 2021. Earlier this summer I tested positive (likely omicron). Had one of day of symptoms but improved quickly over the next couple of days. By the end of the week I was almost back to normal.