U.S. researchers find another flu antibody

What this tells us is that the human immune system can fine-tune its response to the flu and actually produce, albeit at a low frequency, antibodies that neutralize a whole series of strains, said lead author Stephen Harrison of Childrens Hospital Boston.

As this quote suggests, the human immune system is a marvelous thing. It operates well when it is routinely exposed to all sorts of germs, and it appears from the paper that natural immunity may well develop to improve our natural response. Unfortunately our modern society is overly-afraid of germs and goes to extraordinary means to insulate us from the natural environment. Frequent hand washing; sanitizing everything; inoculating against diseases that for the most part present inconvenience and rarely involve serious complications. Industrialized nations with well-tuned public health systems are, in my view, creating more problems than they solve. The WHO (World Health Organization) said as much when they recently suggested ending the Polio vaccination programme: it creates more Polio than it is designed to solve.

One of those who signed on to the quoted paper works for Novartis, a giant pharmaceutical corporation. The rest are in academic medicine, which historically has a direct pipeline to profitable patents, contracts, and jobs in the pharmaceutical market.

Money drives these projects, and this takes the long-term genetic, species, and safety considerations out of the equation, or at least mutes them.

So is this really such good news?

Mark, ask polio survivors if they think polio vaccine programs should be ended. You may be surprised to find that they disagree with the WHO. Ask survivors of the 1918 influenza epidemic (hard as they may be to find these days) if they think flu shots are a bad idea.

Are you married? Do you have children? Ask your wife if she thinks you should forego these vaccinations for your children.

Your argument sounds very ivory towerish. Down here in the real world, vaccines save lives and prevent suffering. I can't think of any rational argument against that.

The new broadly neutralizing antibody, called CH65, can stick to the surface part of the flu virus known as hemagglutinin which mutates every season, forcing medical experts to regularly come up with a new vaccine.

Wow!!!

This discovery may lead to a cure for AIDS. What a stunning discovery in medical sience. Thank you!.