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Is a Universal Flu Vaccine On the Horizon?
sciencehabit writes: Two groups of researchers have created vaccines that may lead to a universal flu shot that could protect against every type of flu. Every year millions get a flu shot but with thousands of strains that mutate and evolve across seasons, no one shot can protect against them all. Sciencemag reports on the research: "When the teams vaccinated mice, both groups saw full protection against H5N1, a lethal influenza strain distantly related to H1N1. In both studies, mice that did not receive the stem-derived vaccine died, but vaccinated mice all survived. In further experiments, the nanoparticle-anchoring vaccine showed partial protection in ferrets, whereas the other vaccine showed partial protection in monkeys. Two of the six vaccinated ferrets fell ill and died, compared with a 100% mortality rate for the unvaccinated ferrets. None of the monkeys died, but those that were vaccinated had significantly lower fevers than their nonvaccinated companions."
So, what more would you expect to learn with more mice? Do you really imagine that the vaccine is ineffective and it was just random chance that all the mice that did *not* the vaccine died and the mice that *did* get the vaccine survived? And do you also not understand that humans may respond differently to the vaccine than mice - that even if you were perfectly certain about what happened in mice, there would still be considerable uncertainty in humans?
It's the mixture of animals (pigs mostly), birds and people in close proximity that is the source of the flu.
I doubt a universal vaccine will be developed, given the variations amongst all the inputs.
However, (another vaccine) is correct. You can reduce your infection rate by at least 50 percent just by washing your hands (it's the scrubbing action and the use of water and soap or alcohol that does it) and covering your nose area when you sneeze (sleeve, tissue, hands that you wash after but remember you touch doorknobs.
I find small kids defeat most screening methods, in which case you really should have taken the vaccine.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Could be explained away as nothing more than random change
Any sample size could potentially be nothing more than random chance, as it depends on the strength of the effect you are looking for... which is why there is not just a set sample size but discussion of confidence intervals and other statistics.
should be discarded and defecated on like the N=12 AntiVax studies.
If you are going to modify or fake results, then your sample size doesn't likely matter anyway.
To the claim that there are no black sheep. The finding of a SINGLE black sheep is enough. No need to find more. You really do need to engage your brain rather than try to show off your "statistics" skills "learned" by reading slashdot posters without comprehension of the background and make a complete ass of yourself.