<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/little-hope-in-finding-hiv-vaccine-say
s-aids-expert-782545.html>:

----- Begin Quote -----

One of the world's leading experts on the Aids virus said last night
he was profoundly depressed about the prospects of a HIV vaccine and
that scientists were clutching at straws in their attempts to develop
one.

David Baltimore, who won a Nobel Prize in 1975 for work that was
crucial to the discovery of HIV in 1983, said that the past 25 years
has been a story of abject failure in terms of developing a vaccine,
with still no sign of a breakthrough.

Dr Baltimore, professor of biology at the California Institute of
Technology, said that some scientists are now talking openly about the
prospect of never being able to produce a vaccine...

[...]

Millions of pounds of research funds have been spent on trying to
develop a HIV vaccine and the best scientists around the world have
devoted years to the problem, he said. "But all of those things sound
like incremental improvements on zero, and if you improve on zero you
generally get more zeros. So we do have to be thinking about this in a
very different way," said Dr Baltimore.

Referring to an American football term that describes the last,
desperate attempt to score from a throw of the ball, Dr Baltimore said
scientists now are "doing a Hail Mary" in terms of vaccine research.
"I say that because I don't want to pretend that we have found the
route to a new vaccine. What we're trying to do is to use a
combination of gene therapy, immunotherapy and stem cell therapy, all
which are trendy and difficult," he said. "HIV has found ways to
totally fool the immune system. That is an established fact. So we've
got to do one better than nature."

One clinical trial of a vaccine made by the drug company Merck had to
be stopped because it appeared to make people more vulnerable to
infection than if they refrained from vaccination, he said.

"We were hopeful that we would at least see a glimmer of efficacy," he
added. "Well we saw a glimmer of its reverse, that is there was some
evidence that people who were vaccinated got a higher rate of
infection than the people who were not vaccinated.

"The conclusion that was loud and clear was that the vaccine wasn't
worth anything. [We] should be able to find a way around Mother Nature
and produce a vaccine that is effective but so far we haven't done
that and the failure last year of the Merck vaccine was a jolt."

In 1986, Dr Baltimore wrote a report saying that an Aids vaccine was
at least 10 years away and every year since then he has continued to
say that a vaccine against HIV is at least 10 years away.

"I still think that an Aids vaccine is at least 10 years away," he
said. "You are quite within bounds to say, well if it's been 10 years
away for the last 20 years does that really mean that it's never going
to happen? And there are people saying now that it will never happen."

"I'm not prepared to say that because I don't want to take a
pessimistic stance. I want to take an optimistic stance and say this
is too important to give up on."

----- End Quote -----

The Press Association has published a story about this item with an
even more negative title: "'No hope' for finding HIV vaccine."

----- Begin Quote -----

Scientists are facing defeat in the battle to conquer HIV and Aids by
developing new vaccines, according to a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.

Professor David Baltimore, president of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS), claimed there was "no hopeful route
to success" in beating HIV through traditional immunisation.

[...]

He said the vaccine community had tried its best but without success.

He added: "The community is depressed because we see no hopeful route
to success."

Four years ago Prof Baltimore proposed a long term strategy combining
gene therapy and stem cell therapy as well as immunologic therapy to
help the body defeat HIV. Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, this research had now been running for two and a half
years.

----- End Quote -----

Perhaps the bumbling professor is so glum about an HIV vaccine because
he has his own pet project to push.