theCOVIDboard

“STAT was curious which questions topped scientists’ lists. So, we asked a bunch. More than two dozen virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists, and evolutionary biologists shared with us their top question.”

https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/20/we-k...questions/

It’s interesting to see the TOP questions remaining for immunologists, biologists and virologists. It shows how much we still don’t know, and how much we can benefit by learning more — both to address Covid and to stop or treat future diseases. I found the tone of the experts to be significantly less optimistic than mine — several raised concerns about waves hitting this fall and winter. I hope they meant abroad, and not in the US.

An interesting read. Thanks.

Rather than asking the kinds of questions they've asked, I have considered some of the future effects that this pandemic will have. I expect we will have a generation of epidemiologists and virologists that will study this pandemic & this disease. I predict that we will have (further?) digital models of the organic structures of the viruses and what they attack, to know better how to thwart them, how they likely will mutate (and whether a particular potential mutation will be more transmissible or more dangerous). I think we will learn a lot about the immune system.

There are contentious issues to be considered regarding the inoculation of the populace. (Tonight I stumbled across my innocculation records (Yellow Fever, etc) for travel 50 years ago.) I'm sure there will be some (including some that read this) that will question whether the NPIs (shutting down businesses) necessary, while others will question why we didn't do more. I'm sure there will be those that study the acceptance of & resistance to such measures: what works to convince the populace, and what works to make them question the authorities.

Someday (not in the next 10 years, but maybe 100 years), instead of vaccinating people, we potentially could release a variant that is both more infectious and trivial in effect, but confers immunity. (Similar in concept to the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida this week.)

It's great to read more optimistic things.

Let me add that this is the "coming out" of mRNA. As we exit the pandemic, we will have a massive manufacturing infrastructure in place. The crazy good effectiveness may inspire research (and possibly) success for some diseases that have no good vaccines (tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, dengue), not to mention cancer treatments. I remember someone telling me "there has never been a successful vaccine for a coronavirus" a year ago. Perhaps that was true a year ago. It certainly is not today.