HIV Vaccine

Hope you all took notice of the news yesterday coming out of Thailand about the HIV vaccine. It is the first breakthrough in the battle against this killer virus. It is only 30% effective, but that is more than any other vaccine tried so far. A beginning! The interesting thing is that it is a combination of two vaccines that were not or minimally effective before. That gives a clue to how to fight this disease. It is interesting to me that it is very similiar to the way we fight the virus with drugs, a combination of drugs, or in this case a combination of vaccines. The problem with this virus it is a definite death sentence if acquired. It mutates so rapidly or in otherwords it is rapidly evolving in response to new natural selection pressures, read drugs. The mythology surrounding this virus/disease is so widespread and wrong that it just simply amazes me. It has been described as a smart virus by the way it can out manuever our attempts at treatment. It isn't smart, it is that its evolution is smarter than we are. But persistence and science will come up with answers, not religion or CAM. But it will be interesting to see what the aniti-vaxers come up on this one. And they will be wrong as usual.

Peace
Skeptical DoDo