{"id":53247,"date":"2020-05-13T18:58:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T23:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53247"},"modified":"2020-05-13T18:58:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T23:58:38","slug":"dont-bet-on-a-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53247","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Bet on a Vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/05\/13\/Vaccine-Not-Likely\/\">Don\u2019t Bet on a Vaccine<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If we get one, great. But here\u2019s why we can\u2019t count on it and what that means.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/05\/12\/CoronavirusCloseUpBlue.jpg\" alt=\"CoronavirusCloseUpBlue.jpg\"\/><figcaption>Biologist Paul Ewald notes earlier virus vaccine successes came easier. \u2018We are now left with the more wily ones which will probably evade our vaccination efforts.\u2019&nbsp;Photo of the virus causing COVID-19: Shutterstock.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every day politicians promise eventual relief from the threat of COVID-19 with a vaccine. An unprecedented scientific race to develop more than 100 of them is now underway. But don\u2019t roll up your sleeve yet. Any promise of a technical solution for a global pandemic remains a great gamble for a variety of reasons.<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/05\/13\/Vaccine-Not-Likely\/#series-listview-link\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we had better develop a robust Plan B: Get very good at living with the coronavirus in our midst, keeping large outbreaks to a minimum. The key to this, lacking a super effective vaccine, is: test, trace and isolate. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat again. We have the means to do this now, and it should become our way of life for many months, and likely years, to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why should we be wary of the promise a vaccine will deliver us any time soon from the coronavirus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Some viruses are more \u2018wily\u2019 than others.<\/strong>&nbsp;Vaccines are artificial tools to confer immunity to diseases. Instead of waiting for natural immunity and disease cycles to do the often deadly and random job, our civilization now depends on the efficiency of vaccines. Immunization is as much a part of modern civilization as the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vaccines, however, have their limits and can also suffer from diminishing returns. The evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald has noted that humans have used vaccines for the last 200 years to conquer the easiest adversaries: measles, diptheria, rabies, polio and smallpox. \u201cWe are now left with the more wily ones which will probably evade our vaccination efforts by changing their coats.\u201d Malaria and viruses like HIV are masters at evading the immune system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t Bet on a Vaccine If we get one, great. But here\u2019s why we can\u2019t count on it and what that means. Every day politicians promise eventual relief from the threat of COVID-19 with a vaccine. An unprecedented scientific race to develop more than 100 of them is now underway. But don\u2019t roll up your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5549,28947,29011,29477],"class_list":["post-53247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-coronavirus-pandemic","tag-covid-19","tag-vaccine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53248,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53247\/revisions\/53248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}