Originally Posted by
Tooold
This Scientific American article was linked in the NYPost article that kdogg referenced above. It provides a good discussion on the debate about releasing all doses now, and the issue of whether one dose might protect us enough.
A couple interesting points: 1) they mention the risk that a weaker immune response provided by just one dose might actually allow the virus to mutate, making the vaccine ineffective going forward, and 2) they make the point that obviously both Moderna and Pfizer would have preferred to develop a one-shot vaccine, but that their research and early scientific data led them to focus on a two shot vaccine.
http://https://www.scientificamerica...the-data-say1/
Here is the money quote from the SciAm article:
On Twitter, Florian Krammer, a professor of microbiology at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, pointed out another concern with giving only a single dose: the possibility that it might cause a weak immune response, which could make the virus more likely to mutate and potentially make the vaccine ineffective. That is a possibility but may not be a huge concern, Crotty says.
I don't know how increasing immunity to a virus causes it to be more "Likely" to mutate (seems odd to enhance a chemical property like that).
But from a mathematical point of view it makes mutations more obvious if the original viruses start to get wiped out. Then only the mutations that are not affected by the vaccine start to survive (visible on a percentage basis). That would make sense.
Larry
DevilHorse