[Teacher317]

The polio vaccine was/is merely a diluted form of the polio virus injected into the bloodstream. The body is left to create its own defenses. That's not exactly a discovery or technological advancement. If that's all we have today for viruses, then clearly we are not yet very far along in combatting them.

(Pardon my ignorance on our exact current status as virus-killers... but I recall being rather impressed that these microscopic monsters continue to baffle us, and I can't imagine any huge breakthroughs along those lines that would get by without some major coverage in the science journals.)

[Alter Kaker]

The polio vaccine was/is merely a diluted form of the polio virus injected into the bloodstream.

No, that's the Salk vaccine. The newer, Sabin vaccine contains no live virus. As for saying "merely," I'd like to see you come up with a technological innovation anywhere near as brilliant or as transforming.

That's not exactly a discovery or technological advancement.

It isn't?

If that's all we have today for viruses, then clearly we are not yet very far along in combatting them.

Huh? Public health workers have completely eliminated smallpox from every country on the planet, and yet you say that we're not far along in combatting it?

[Alter Kaker]

The body is left to create its own defenses

Uh, that's the whole point of any vaccine -- to stimulate the immune system to destroy a vector. That's how all vaccines work, how all vaccines have to work.