WHO Approves First Malaria Vaccine

[Sheilbh]

Have only read the headline/Tweet so do not come at me with details and facts - but this sounds like incredible news:

The New York Times
@nytimes
Breaking News: The WHO approved the first ever malaria vaccine, which could save tens of thousands of children in sub-Saharan Africa. The quest for this vaccine has been underway for a hundred years, a WHO official said, and is a "historic event." https://nyti.ms/3oxUgAy

[Barrister]

Largely funded by the Gates foundation it could indeed be huge.

Sounds like a pretty tricky vaccine to develop, as it's caused by a parasite, not a virus or bacteria.

[Sheilbh]

Sounds like a pretty tricky vaccine to develop, as it's caused by a parasite, not a virus or bacteria.

I have a friend who works on researching vaccine for malaria and yeah from what he's said it's incredibly difficult v virus or bacteria. But reading into it and it could be huge given how much of a killer this still is (and given the risk of a super malaria strain emerging in the next few years).

[Jacob]

That's great news.

[Berkut]

Amazing news.

Sam Harris did a podcast with a virology guy. He was talking about how the mRNA covid vaccines were developed so fast, and he pointed out that it really wasn't - they were based on research that had been going on for decades, it just got a massive infusion of resources due to the pandemic.

He pointed out that from a strictly financial perspective, we should be investing billions into this kind of research. The flu alone costs something like several hundred billion a year in lost wages, productivity, health costs, etc., etc.

He mentioned that there was a proposal for a broad spectrum flu vaccine that was estimated to cost about $2 billion to develop, and scientists think it has about a 50% chance of working, with "working" being defined as a single vaccine shot that will work against all flu variants to some great degree.

Financially and economically, that is a slam dunk bet. The payoff is in the hundreds of billions, even adjusted for the 50% chance of it not working at all, and the return on investment is huge.

But the free market simply does not work here - any company developing such a vaccine would be running the risk of spending a couple billion that might be simply wasted (if it doesn't work), and if it DOES work, their return is not the hundreds of billions saved in productivity, but rather the actual amount of money they can make selling the vaccine, once, to enough people. Maybe it is a good investment, but when it comes to some pharma company deciding how to invest their next $2 billion in discretionary research funding....it doesn't make sense.

Anti-malarial drugs are the same, which is why it has taken someone like Gates to actually do anything. Any kind of sane economic analysis would have seen this kind of thing dealt with long ago.

Being dismissive of the Randian idea of the all pervasive free market is not based on any kind of altruistic, emotional, feel good ideas about humanity or socialism. It is a cold, hard, rational calculation of how that market actually works, or does not work. It is absolutely idiotic and irrational to not investing heavily in this kind of science.

[viper37]

Largely funded by the Gates foundation it could indeed be huge.

is there a 5g GSP chip in this one too?


It's great news, indeed. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Can you catch autism and become magnetized?

[Valmy]

Can you catch autism and become magnetized?

Better than getting Malaria.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Can you catch autism and become magnetized?

Better than getting Malaria.

Just what a sheep WOULD say.

[Barrister]

Can you catch autism and become magnetized?

Better than getting Malaria.

Just what a sheep WOULD say.

I disagree.

I sheep would say "Baaaa".

[The Brain]

Actually they would say "what are you doing, stepherd?".

[Barrister]

Actually they would say "what are you doing, stepherd The Brain?".

Fixed your joke for you.

[The Brain]

Actually they would say "what are you doing, stepherd The Brain?".

Fixed your joke for you.

Why I never.

[Eddie Teach]

Step-Brain.

[alfred russel]

But the free market simply does not work here - any company developing such a vaccine would be running the risk of spending a couple billion that might be simply wasted (if it doesn't work), and if it DOES work, their return is not the hundreds of billions saved in productivity, but rather the actual amount of money they can make selling the vaccine, once, to enough people. Maybe it is a good investment, but when it comes to some pharma company deciding how to invest their next $2 billion in discretionary research funding....it doesn't make sense.

Anti-malarial drugs are the same, which is why it has taken someone like Gates to actually do anything. Any kind of sane economic analysis would have seen this kind of thing dealt with long ago.

Being dismissive of the Randian idea of the all pervasive free market is not based on any kind of altruistic, emotional, feel good ideas about humanity or socialism. It is a cold, hard, rational calculation of how that market actually works, or does not work. It is absolutely idiotic and irrational to not investing heavily in this kind of science.

This is a dumb analysis. There are numerous pricing regulations preventing pharmaceutical companies from charging a price that would allow them to capture the benefits a malaria vaccine would generate. It isn't a free market.

Companies are very willing to invest in R&D projects that have a 50% expected failure rate -- it all depends on the risk adjusted expected return on the investment and the company's expected cost of the funds.