this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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People have been trying to make malaria vaccines for over 100 years. Well over 100 vaccines have gone into clinical trials in people. Very, very few have worked to any degree.

Malaria is not a virus, it’s not a bacterium. It’s a protozoan parasite, some thousands of times larger than a typical virus. A good measure of that is how many genes it has. Covid has 13, malaria has about 5,500. This is one of the reasons that malaria is super complex.

With the help of the revolutionary new R21/Matrix vaccine the disease could be eradicated by 2040 (as claimed).

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[–] Auzy@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, Anti-Vaxxers have discovered that disinformation gives them a sense of authority on knowledge (and they know people don't tend to listen to those who have no idea what they're talking about generally), so, they'll do everything they can to argue against this

[–] TheRaven@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Luckily malaria isn’t spreading where all the anti-vaxxers are. Argue all they want, it’ll save so many lives.

[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 5 points 1 year ago

Perhaps anti-vaxx missionaries can do for malaria what christian missionaries do for HIV?

I can totally imagine them setting up camps, teaching people to just "believe in their immune system", discouraging proven medicine in the process.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thankfully this has been true up till now!

[–] TheRaven@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From what I read, malaria isn’t spread human-to-human, so it matters more directly whether you yourself have been vaccinated. Herd immunity isn’t much of a factor. If malaria started spreading near you, get vaccinated against it. Those who don’t would die.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, a malaria vaccine would be just to protect yourself from getting malaria.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SugarApplePie@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By the time 2040 rolls around we're gonna need some good news like this!

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

wont be much life left on Earth by then I reckon

[–] Spzi@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Let's just hope no one has to wear a piece of cloth for it to work, or even get the vaccine.

We thought we had eradicated polio, but the anti-vaxxers had other plans.

[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately, the US ruined the faith many countries have in vaccination missions because we just had to kill a renal patient, that we trained and funded, who "went off the reservation."