re: Odds there is a COVID Vaccine

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yes, but neither were anywhere near the cases or demand as a vaccine for COVID

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has there ever been a real reason to?

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I'd say the odds are high simply because whoever figures it out will instantly make billions

money is the great motivator

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Scientists from Texas A&M University, biopharmaceutical company Pulmotect and MD Anderson Cancer Center will be testing a lung inhalant drug that could provide short-term immunity against COVID-19.

Houston-based company Pulmotect was founded by Magnus H??k, regents professor at the Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology, and Dr. Burton Dickey, chair of the pulmonary department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Pulmotect is developing the drug, PUL-042, which could be delivered as an aerosol for short-term protection against lung infections caused by several viruses, bacteria and fungi.

PUL-042 has had limited human testing, and has not shown any serious side effects. H??k said the drug is unique because it can protect against pneumonia caused by a variety of different microbes, but is most effective against viruses.

“PUL-042 activates a component of the immune system, but it’s not the adaptive immune system that we are used to talking about — the drug targets the innate immune system,” H??k said. “We don’t need to know what the virus is, we don’t have to have knowledge of the molecules that make up the virus, which you have to have to start making your vaccine that will hopefully provide longer and stronger protection. The uniqueness is that with all conventional vaccines you have to have a lot of other knowledge of the virus, but here you don’t. It attacks all of the viruses that we have tried, most bacteria, and even some fungi.”

PUL-042 is composed of two small synthetic molecules, and works by stimulating specific innate immune receptors in the lung lining within minutes. H??k said it is believed the drug will be effective in protecting against COVID-19 since animal data shows it protects against other coronaviruses such as MERS and SARS. PUL-042 protection only lasts for approximately three to five days, but is able to be repeatedly administered every third or fourth day.

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Oxford is in phase 3, Moderna goes in Phase 3 next week.

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William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School who spent years researching HIV, wrote a piece in Forbes arguing that the Oxford vaccine looked like it would be only partially protective, because it didn’t generate high levels of neutralizing antibodies, which defend cells against infection. “What happens when you have a vaccine with people running around with virus spewing out of their nose? Anyone who is not vaccinated or not vaccinated well is going to get infected,” Haseltine told me on a Zoom call. “My guess is the Oxford vaccine isn’t going to be powerful enough for older people, so they will have to boost it up, and boosting it up can have side effects.”

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