Thread by @petermbenglish

I was just asked to comment on Coronavirus vaccines. I thought twitter might be interested in my response.

There are many different vaccines in production, and for a vaccine geek like me, it’s fascinating.
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I was saying that the future of vaccines was likely to be in DNA/RNA vaccines two decades ago – and then they almost disappeared off the radar, apart…
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…apart from some trials of cancer vaccines (cleverly providing personalised cancer cell marker genes with conjugate molecules, effectively tricking the body into manufacturing a ready-conjugated vaccine).
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I am less confident about vector vaccines. We have some experience with them; but I can’t help but worry that once the immune system starts to recognise the vector, they will become useless.
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And with killed virus / sub-unit vaccines – well, unless there’s an effective adjuvant (or conjugating process), I worry that they won’t be immunogenic enough.
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There’s a reasonable chance killed virus sub-unit vaccines will provide protective immunity for the person vaccinated, without providing the sterilising immunity required to contribute to herd immunity.
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It's also tricky to be sure what sort of immunity is needed, and will be provided by vaccines. The growing evidence on the importance of the (hard to measure) T-cell response is reassuring, but will make it harder to assess vaccine efficacy.
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