Breakthrough Portends Cure For the Common Cold 180
breadboy21 writes with this excerpt from the Independent:
"Scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body's immune defenses can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until now to be impossible. The discovery opens the door to the development of a new class of antiviral drugs that work by enhancing this natural virus-killing machinery of the cell. Scientists believe the first clinical trials of new drugs based on the findings could begin within two to five years."
Re:Flash game (Score:2, Informative)
My lady is always after me to make a game like that (as if I were a programmer) because of the benefits of visualization vis-a-vis healing. I remember there was a shooter game like that for Apple 2... Plasmania? Yes, that's it. I bet you can get it from the Newton Apple archive and play it in emulation if you care :)
Re:NO! (Score:5, Informative)
Misleading in Title and Content (Score:3, Informative)
Medical researchers should be required to keep their yap shut until they produce something that works in humans. For decades I've read thousands (probably tens of thousands) of science articles that promised medical cures. Yet in that time only a handful were produced. Medical science today is little more than a money machine for researchers. I doubt that the investment is worthwhile.
Where's a cure for cancer, for diabetes, for heart disease? Nowhere to be found in the USA.
Re:How about other viruses? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Two to five YEARS??? (Score:4, Informative)
Plain stats give you an idea of the number of healthy volunteers you need at this stage, and the time it's going to take to statistically prove that the results you've got are conclusive before going to the next level.
Between each phase there'll be long review, ethics boards, etc. Bear in mind that for every successful drug there are going to be hundreds or thousands of candidate drugs which didn't make it.
In short, you can criticise the FDA for some things, but they serve a vital purpose which is ensuring to as high a level as possible that the drugs that are approved are both safe and effective.
The fact that a drug has passed FDA approval does not shield the Pharma company that made it from any liability - this is a common misconception that is categorically not true.
In terms of the common cold, I'd kind of agree with you but I'd also say that once the mechanism for defeating the cold is understood it'll almost certainly give us the ability to treat a lot of more critical illnesses than we currently can - there's no reason not to research into it, anyway.
All pharma companies are trying like mad to shorten the 8-12 year process of taking a drug to market - they'd be mad if they didn't just from a commercial point of view - the length it takes is indicative of effort required.
Re:Article seems to be marketing baloney (Score:3, Informative)
Re:NO! (Score:3, Informative)
The other thing that just gets me ticked is people NOT WASHING THEIR HANDS when they use the restroom.
When's the last time you got cholera? Tapeworm? The sorts of infections which are transmitted via contact with fecal matter are a different set of things than what we're talking about here. The cold virus inhabits the upper respiratory tract, not your ass.
In fact, when's the last time you caught ANYTHING and your immediate thought was "Dammit, I caught this damn thing from someone's ass!"
I'm all for handwashing, but don't think there's anything unusually "unclean" about a restroom. Anything that anybody has touched with their hands could harbor potential nasties. Let's stick with worrying about things that are actually real.