While I also find this an interesting idea I’m wondering if this exchange maybe suggest some additional complications.
When Estep reached out to him earlier this year, Siber also wanted to know if the team had considered a dangerous side effect, called enhancement, in which a vaccine can actually worsen the disease. “It’s not the best idea—especially in this case, you could make things worse,” Siber says of the effort. “You really need to know what you are doing here.”
He isn’t the only skeptic. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Medical Center, who saw the white paper, pans Radvac as “off-the-charts loony.” In an email, Caplan says he sees “no leeway” for self-experimentation given the importance of quality control with vaccines. Instead, he thinks there is a high “potential for harm” and “ill-founded enthusiasm.”
Church disagrees, saying the vaccine’s simple formulation means it’s probably safe. “I think the bigger risk is that it is ineffective,” he says.
Given it is from the end of July I might wonder if any evidence of the potential or making the disease worse by taking the home brew has been seen.
I am also not a big fan of the “‘no leeway’ for self experimentation” view as I tend to think more “putting your money where your mouth is” would be a better world. The concerns should really only be about significant negative externalities, such as you test on yourself and reduce everyone else’s immunity type outcomes (not that I think that particular example would be possible).
Guess I’ll read up on that too. My immediate impression is that I’d expect, a priori, for Very Serious People to have Concerns regardless of whether they’re realistic, and these sound like about what I’d expect in that department. (Also, I have rather a lot more confidence in George Church than in the vast majority of biologists.)
While I also find this an interesting idea I’m wondering if this exchange maybe suggest some additional complications.
from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/29/1005720/george-church-diy-coronavirus-vaccine/
Given it is from the end of July I might wonder if any evidence of the potential or making the disease worse by taking the home brew has been seen.
I am also not a big fan of the “‘no leeway’ for self experimentation” view as I tend to think more “putting your money where your mouth is” would be a better world. The concerns should really only be about significant negative externalities, such as you test on yourself and reduce everyone else’s immunity type outcomes (not that I think that particular example would be possible).
Guess I’ll read up on that too. My immediate impression is that I’d expect, a priori, for Very Serious People to have Concerns regardless of whether they’re realistic, and these sound like about what I’d expect in that department. (Also, I have rather a lot more confidence in George Church than in the vast majority of biologists.)