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curl-6 on 15 June 2020
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sethnintendo said:

I don't get why a vaccine would be so hard to make. Some of these companies are going some "high tech" route but wouldn't the easiest way would be to have something like smallpox inculcation or flu vaccine with inactive or weakened form of virus.

I mean how difficult can it be yet it must be because every year the stupid flu vaccine is almost always wrong in picking the strain that is going to be most severe for the season. I'm just going to keep doing what I did before this mess which was avoid most human beings to begin with. Starting work up again finally this week yet not worried because not many people in my area of manufacturing plant and we are required to wear masks and gloves.

It's not that simple. The flu vaccine is on a well oiled and time-tested yearly production line where its easy to just slot in the latest common strains. Smallpox vaccination uses a different but closely related virus that is harmless but produces antibodies compatible with smallpox.

With COVID-19, no vaccine exists for any virus in its family, so there's no pre-existing formula to piggyback on, and no known harmless relative that's closely related enough to confer immunity.

The main reason its taking this long is that extensive safety and efficacy testing is essential before a vaccine is widely administered, in order to make sure you're not rushing out something that causes negative side effects or doesn't work reliably enough.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 15 June 2020