Sunday, August 2, 2020

Some scientists are taking a DIY coronavirus vaccine, and nobody knows if it’s legal or if it works

Famed geneticist George Church and at least 20 others didn’t want to wait for the results of clinical trials: “I think we are at much bigger risk from covid.”




I'll have to admit, I'm tempted, although I think it's probably worth waiting a few weeks to see if anyone dies first. But it does seem to be just harmless fragments of a dead coronavirus.

A warning:

He isn’t the only skeptic. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Medical Center, who saw the white paper, pans Radvac as “off-the-charts loony.” In an email, Caplan says he sees “no leeway” for self-experimentation given the importance of quality control with vaccines. Instead, he thinks there is a high “potential for harm” and “ill-founded enthusiasm.”

Some scientists are taking a DIY coronavirus vaccine, and nobody knows if it’s legal or if it works

I've been warned by an immunologist on twitter not to try this. It could leave the body to an heightened sensitivity to disease.


4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

“A more safe and effective method for smallpox control originated in the late 18th century when Dr. Edward Jenner of Gloucestershire, England noticed that milkmaids exposed to cowpox appeared to be immune to smallpox. He tested his hypothesis by inoculating a boy with cowpox pus and subsequently challenging him with smallpox. The experiment was a success, and Jenner prepared a paper describing this case along with 13 other individuals who had contracted either horsepox or cowpox before being exposed to smallpox. In one of the worst editorial decisions of all time, the Royal Society rejected the paper and suggested that Jenner cease his cowpox investigations.5 Jenner wisely ignored this advice, named the cowpox material the “vaccine virus”, and thus discovered the concept of vaccination.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069029/

Kaivey said...

I've been warned by an immunologist on twitter not to try this. It could leave the body to an heightened sensitivity to disease.

Peter Pan said...

Sounds like you have a problem accepting your own mortality, Kaivey.

Kaivey said...

I try not to think about it.