Did I call it or what?

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Jay Stallworth - 05 May 2006 23:30 GMT

This is a link to the thread where I suggested that it would perhaps be
prudent for America to invest in an H5N1 vaccine.

http://tinyurl.com/rx942

Please take note of the total apathy, and even disagreement, with which
my suggestion was greeted.

It has since been reported that a human H5N1 vaccine shows partial
efficacy, and would help to slow a pandemic, if the virus should make
the jump to humans. Now the Senate wants to invest billions to upgrade
the vaccine manufacturing infrastructure, with H5N1 being the primary
motivator for this spending.

It turns out that I was right on all counts. Since nobody else in this
group is willing to do it, I'm giving myself a pat on the back for
successfully predicting that this should happen. Chalk up another one
... for Quake!

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Bob - 08 May 2006 03:14 GMT

>This is a link to the thread where I suggested that it would perhaps be
>prudent for America to invest in an H5N1 vaccine.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>efficacy, and would help to slow a pandemic, if the virus should make
>the jump to humans.

If you have a reference that is really positive about any (human)
vaccine against the current bird flu virus, please provide it. What I
have heard is that so far it isn't very good (though of course is a
start). Further, there is no way to know what value, if any, it would
have against the virus that might arise in humans (human-human
transmissible).

By the way, the April 21 issue of Science has a feature section on
Flu, with many good articles. Most of them should be at least partly
readable by a general audience. (One of the articles is on alternative
vaccine approaches. There are many, none worth betting on at this
point.)

bob

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Jay Stallworth - 10 May 2006 11:14 GMT

>>This is a link to the thread where I suggested that it would perhaps
>>be prudent for America to invest in an H5N1 vaccine.
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> vaccine approaches. There are many, none worth betting on at this
> point.)

I'm a researcher, with a different attitude than clinicians. My goal is
to find promising projects and future directions. As long as it serves
its purpose of helping rather than hurting, I couldn't care less what is
done with my work when I'm done. I just need to start it, finish it,
write it and move on to the next one. The only time I ever want to see
a patient is when I'm recruiting 35 for my 95% C.I..

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