What do you mean by "irradiation"? You mean eradication?
Thank you, I meant eradication. And thank you as well, for taking the time to respond to me. I've always appreciated your posts and found them informative.
Anyway, as I understand it, covid now exists in animal reservoirs and is spread globe-wide. It also mutates and spreads easily. Those characteristics would appear to make it very challenging to eradicate.
By sterilizing, I meant that the vaccine would prevent you from carrying the disease. I've read that the vaccine for smallpox is an example of a sterilizing vaccine. Other vaccines, like the flu shot, are not -- train your body to fight and aid in reducing the symptoms. You are correct in that if a virus is very slow to mutate (like polio), wide spread use of non-sterilizing vaccines can lead to eradication. But, if a virus is faster mutating, like Covid, eradication is going be quite hard, if not impossible. I'm obviously speculating here, but I have difficulty in seeing how we could have globally rolled out a vaccine campaign quickly and simultaneously enough to have slowed transmission enough to have stamped out covid as a practical matter. Looking at data from countries like Israel and UK that have very fast and efficient roll-outs, makes me think there is really nothing as a practical matter we could have done, once the disease got its foothold.
The vaccine does use "new" technology, but it's been in development for decades.
Yes, it has, and that does give me some comfort. But, there have been struggles along the way. Here is an article written back in 2016 that discusses Moderna's efforts with mRNA. Its a long piece, mainly detailing some the company politics ask personalities, but it does get into the technology a bit. Moderna very much hoped it could use the mRNA technology to cure diseases, such as cancer. The problem they ran into was figuring out how to get the mRNA delivered. To quote the article:
"Delivery — actually getting RNA into cells — has long bedeviled the whole field. On their own, RNA molecules have a hard time reaching their targets. They work better if they’re wrapped up in a delivery mechanism, such as nanoparticles made of lipids. But those nanoparticles can lead to dangerous side effects, especially if a patient has to take repeated doses over months or years.
Novartis abandoned the related realm of RNA interference over concerns about toxicity, as did Merck and Roche."
https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/
I couldn't find anything discussing more precisely how many doses Moderna thought were too many, or whether they came up with a safer delivery solution in the intervening years.
I know I sound negative on them, but I truly do think that the covid vaccines are a wonder of engineering and have saved lives. Their development is an amazing story. But, I also believe there are limitations and like any new drug, there should be room for scrutiny and debate.