Let's talk about "cures".

Lots of discussion about a vaccine coming "soon". Here are some facts I found while researching this topic;

"The fastest vaccine development effort to date was during the Zika outbreak, in 2015, when one was ready for testing in about seven months, but the epidemic fizzled out before an approved vaccine could be sent through clinical trials".

How Vaccines Are Made And Tested
"The creation of a vaccine involves scientists and medical experts from around the world, and it usually requires 10 to 15 years of research before the vaccine is made available to the general public. The first step of this extensive process involves several years of laboratory research, in which scientists and researchers identify an antigen that can prevent a disease.

Once the test vaccine has been cleared for further investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at least three more phases of thorough clinical trials are conducted on human volunteers to test vaccine efficacy, to determine appropriate dosage, and to monitor for adverse side effects, etc. These trials usually take several more years to complete. The last phase involves a test group of up to tens of thousands of human volunteers. Unsure if this is a large enough test group? Consider this -– medicines in the United States also go through incredible scrutiny, but their test subject sample sizes are three times smaller than vaccine test subject groups.

But that's not the end of it: Once approved, the FDA continues to closely monitor the vaccine . It tests everything from batches of the vaccine to the production process and the facilities for safety. The FDA also conducts ongoing monitoring of vaccine reactions. Numerous agencies also work together on a global level to track, collect and analyze data, to make sure these vaccines are, and remain, safe for the general population. For more information on vaccine coordination and monitoring, visit the CDC's page on Why It's Important to Monitor Vaccine Safety and the Immunization Safety Office.

Unlike other vaccines, which typically take 10 to 15 years of research, development and testing before being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seasonal flu vaccines are developed on an annual basis. While the antigen changes in the flu vaccine every year, the manufacturing process remains the same and is founded on ongoing virus tracking around the world." https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/immunization/vaccine_safety/science.htm

So if the manufacturing process differs, it could be years before we have a safe and effective vaccine. I also want to add that without safe testing we could have another episode like the Thalidomide nightmare, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/health/thalidomide-fda-documents.html. Nobody want to repeat those mistakes.

 

There are only two options.
A vaccine
Herd immunity

 

As far as I can discover we have NEVER been able to come up with an effective vaccine against a corona virus???