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SARS Vaccine Developed

Posted by michael on from the more-shots dept.

sbszine writes "Chinese scientists have successfully produced a SARS vaccine. In a clinical trial beginning in May, 36 volunteers were vaccinated. Most have now developed antibodies, and there have been no side effects reported. Slashdot covered the commencement of the clinical trial in an earlier story."

3 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Medical research by Will_Malverson · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Yeah, medical research is a lot easier when you don't have the liability concern of having to compensate patients for things that go wrong, and you don't have those silly western 'ethics' about doing tests on humans before doing animal tests and being ridiculously sure it's safe.


    Am I being demeaningly sarcastic, or wistfully jealous? I'm not sure.

    1. Re:Medical research by Idarubicin · · Score: 3, Insightful
      ... you don't have those silly western 'ethics' about doing tests on humans before doing animal tests and being ridiculously sure it's safe.

      On the other hand, China was much harder hit by SARS than North America was. In the United States, there were only about thirty cases. If they're afraid that the next outbreak will infect millions of Chinese instead of thousands (with a fatality rate of more than ten percent), then yes--I can see it being sound policy to expedite vaccine development and testing. If there had been an outbreak of a novel disease in the United States that infected seven thousand people and killed seven hundred, I can see the FDA being pressured to rapidly approve trials, too.

      Besides--they weren't testing vaccine efficacy by exposing people to the virus. They just tested the volunteers' blood for antibodies to SARS. This gives a pretty good indication that their immune system will respond to the virus without actually risking their health.

      Meanwhile, the vaccine is probably made from recombinant protein that mimics the SARS virus' protein coat. Lacking the virus' genetic material, the vaccine cannot cause disease. The worst that is likely to happen would be an allergic reaction, but you can't eliminate that risk with animal testing--eventually you have to put it into a human and see what happens.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
  2. Zombies by j0nb0y · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is the one that's going to turn everyone into zombies, right?

    --
    If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?