Last night I heard an interesting snippet about the virus.
Apparently 15 years ago DARPA started a project to build the capacity to rapidly develop antibody based vaccines for new viruses. The goal was to be able to develop a vaccine within 6 months. It would only be expected to provide short term immunity, about 1 to 3 months. The purpose was to protect military personal long enough for a single deployment during a crisis, so it wasn't part of the plan to produce something providing long term immunity, or something that could be produced in large enough quantities for the whole population.
They did a load of basic research and funneled a bunch of money to research facilities like universities and commercial operations. Apparently some of the techniques that came out of it been quite useful and are part of the reason why antibody based vaccine development is moving so fast.
Apparently 15 years ago DARPA started a project to build the capacity to rapidly develop antibody based vaccines for new viruses. The goal was to be able to develop a vaccine within 6 months. It would only be expected to provide short term immunity, about 1 to 3 months. The purpose was to protect military personal long enough for a single deployment during a crisis, so it wasn't part of the plan to produce something providing long term immunity, or something that could be produced in large enough quantities for the whole population.
They did a load of basic research and funneled a bunch of money to research facilities like universities and commercial operations. Apparently some of the techniques that came out of it been quite useful and are part of the reason why antibody based vaccine development is moving so fast.