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David Boxenhorn Profile picture
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29 Apr, 5 tweets, 1 min read
The mRNA technology that created the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has been around for a while. Why didn't we use it until now?

sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/v…
"Grant reviewers... deemed the plan 'outstanding.' But they gave the proposal a low priority score, dooming its bid for funding. 'The significance for developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine may not be high,' they wrote, apparently unconvinced that the viruses pose a global threat."
We will get a pancoronavirus vaccine, and it will not be in the far-distant future, either. We have the technology now (assuming no unexpected negative side effects of mRNA vaccines - so far there are none)
One-third of common colds are caused by coronaviruses. When we get the pancoronavirus vaccine, it will cure them too
What's so special about mRNA vaccines?

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More from @davidboxenhorn

David Boxenhorn Profile picture
28 Apr
The birth of Israel, as told by Ezekiel 16:4-6
וּמוֹלְדוֹתַיִךְ, בְּיוֹם הוּלֶּדֶת אוֹתָךְ לֹא-כָרַּת שָׁרֵּךְ, וּבְמַיִם לֹא-רֻחַצְתְּ לְמִשְׁעִי, וְהָמְלֵחַ לֹא הֻמְלַחַתְּ, וְהָחְתֵּל לֹא חֻתָּלְתְּ
And when you were born, on the day of your birth they didn't cut the umbilical cord, and didn't wash you with water to clean you, and at the salting you weren't salted, and at the swaddling you weren't swaddled
Read 7 tweets
David Boxenhorn Profile picture
23 Apr
1. What's so special about mRNA vaccines? A thread

Viruses (and all living things) are made of proteins. Our acquired immune system works by identifying one of the proteins of a foreign invader, and producing antibodies against that specific protein
2. An autoimmune disease is when our body mistakenly identifies one of our own proteins as foreign, and produces antibodies against it
3. Until now, all vaccines were made from weakened or dead viruses, or related viruses that confer cross-immunity. Cross immunity can occur because related viruses often share proteins. Antibodies against a protein give you immunity from all viruses that share that protein
Read 15 tweets
David Boxenhorn Profile picture
10 Jan
1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were libertarians"

@naval
@ScottAdamsSays
@nntaleb
@normonics

2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work
3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics
Read 13 tweets
David Boxenhorn Profile picture
10 Nov 20
1. For years I have been astounded at the lax attitude the US has toward election fraud. Elections that take days. Ballots moved around. One of the reasons is that I have seen a much better system, the system that is used in Israel. This is thread describing the Israeli system
2. First of all, scale. Israeli polling stations are tiny by US standards. In 2015 I wrote down the stats to myself, they haven't changed much since: There are 10,119 polling stations for 5,883,365 eligible voters. That's 581 people per polling station
3. Most of the polling stations are rooms in schools. A single school might have dozens of polling stations, each in its own room. When I lived in a village, the polling station was in the community center, and there was only one polling station for the whole village
Read 14 tweets
David Boxenhorn Profile picture
11 Oct 20
This might be the answer to your question about covid rates, @ScottAdamsSays.

Cultural practices (we don't know exactly which ones) are really, really important!
I find the Swiss data the most convincing. German, French, and Italian rates are in the exact order that you would expect
The difference between German and Italian rates *within* Switzerland are a factor of 10, similar to the difference between Germany and the US, @ScottAdamsSays. That is much more of a mystery than comparing two separate countries!
Read 5 tweets
David Boxenhorn Profile picture
17 Sep 20
This is the podcast on Covid self-tests that you have to hear. It answers all your questions. Takeaway: It's the bureaucracy, stupid! Only 21 minutes, and Gladwell is an excellent interviewer. My notes are below

@realDonaldTrump
@ScottAdamsSays
@nntaleb
@normonics
@yaneerbaryam
Gladwell: Why are we not doing this?

Mina: It's been first and foremost a regulatory hurdle
The only paths we have to evaluate tests like this in the US are medical diagnostic pathways. They're pathways designed specifically to ensure that a physician, like a detective, is getting all of the information they need to diagnose a sick person in front of them
Read 14 tweets

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