re: #331 Eclectic Cyborg

Here’s something for your good news file out of Pittsburgh. Source: Newsweek

A potential vaccine for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 appears to kickstart the immune system of mice.

The PittCoVacc, a patch the size of a fingerprint covered in 400 tiny needles, triggered the creation of antibodies against the new coronavirus in mice, according to the authors of the paper published in the journal EBioMedicine. The antibodies were created “as early as 2 weeks after immunization,” the team based at the University of Pittsburgh wrote.

The authors said “it is still early to predict whether humans immunized with these vaccine candidates will have similar responses” and be protected from the new coronavirus, but their work demonstrates that a vaccine candidate can be quickly created.

Still a ways to go from a viable human vaccine that can be mass produced but an amazing achievement in a relatively short period of time.

One really has to take these advances in rodent healthcare with a grain of salt. Yes, I know that’s where the researchers start, and that’s fine, but I know there have been a lot of things tried with cancer that appear to work well in mice, but aren’t useful in humans.

Still, fingers crossed.