Friday, June 25, 2010

Scientists Should Watch Movies

From the who-thought-this-was-a-good-idea-department comes a potential new form the flu vaccine.  The new experimental shot is a type of attenuated vaccine where a live, but weakened, form of a virus is contained in the shot.  There are other vaccines like this and this approach isn't new.

What is new is the way that the researchers weakened the virus.  They used genetic engineering to produce a virus that "contains thousands of genetic alterations" and the result of these alterations is such that the virus does not replicate well.  So, the theory goes, you have the complete virus - which will generate a stronger immune response - but in a form that shouldn't be able to cause the flu or spread.

OK, who thought the idea of taking a virus that has a long history of mutation and genetically altering it in "thousands" of places was a good idea?  Don't these researchers read or watch movies?  Don't they know what happens (at least in Hollywood) when well-meaning researchers genetically alter a virus?  Its a good think that they weren't blissfully ignorant or tempt fate at the same time, as that would really clinch the deal.

Oh wait -
"It's unlike anything nature ever evolved," says Steffen Mueller, a virologist at Stony Brook University in New York, whose team tested the vaccine in mice.
Well, the only way it could be worse is if they made some sweeping pronouncement that it was safe ...
"It's an interesting approach to flu vaccination and is certainly likely to be safe," says Sarah Gilbert of the University of Oxford.
Uh-oh, time to run for the hills?

7 comments:

  1. I like the term "certainly likely", it's like "sort of kinda" or "thingy-ma-jig".

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  2. yeah, alright! Lets test it on babies and old people.

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  3. I was thinking they could just sequester the mutant virus at a secret government facility until it "accidentally" escapes into the wild...

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  4. I hope blissfully ignorant fools as yourselves will also run for the hills next time you get sick, rather than run to the doctor. Or better yet stay in the hills from where you came...

    No, wait, maybe Hollywood screenwriters will be able to help you...

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  5. I hope blissfully ignorant fools as yourselves will also run for the hills next time you get sick, rather than run to the doctor. Or better yet stay in the hills from where you came...

    No, wait, maybe Hollywood screenwriters will be able to help you...

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  6. Bloggerbob,

    You seem to have missed the fact that this post was meant to be partially humorous - the humor part was the movie and Hollywood references.

    The serious part was that using genetic engineering on a virus that will then be injected into people makes me extremely nervous. And given our extremely limited understanding of genetics and the primitive tools that we have to work with, I think this a completely rational fear.

    I am sure the researchers have very good intentions but the road to a certain hot place is paved with those. Until science gives us the tools to have confidence in doing this sort of genetic engineering, I think it would be wiser to rely on more time tested techniques.

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  7. So Bloggerbob, I see that you are visiting from Stony Brook which is where this research was done.

    Are you just a student there or were you involved in this research?

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