[marvin]

This is a beautiful idea, basically eliminating the threat and inconvenience that most viruses cause. But it's a bit early to conclude that this is certainly the future.

Covid is by far the worst and deadliest pandemic since 1914, which both justifies and facilitates very fast testing and use of new vaccines.

But we haven't had the time to look for long-term effects yet. This is not an antivaxxer stance - it's basic epistemology. mRNA vaccines allow us to trigger and target the immune system to point it in arbitrary directions to a degree we haven't before. The immune system is a sensitive thing that can cause lots of damage if it gets confused.

I'd want a lot of high-quality data on long-term effects in terms of risk of autoimmune disease, Alzheimers, ME and so on a world where we deliberately provoke strong immune responses versus things that are mostly minor inconveniences - the common cold, the flu, herpes, etc.

I certainly hope this is the future, but I won't be the first in line to test it out.

[aledalgrande]

Just want to clarify that that is the "future", not the present. And just because cold and flu are minor inconveniences to you, doesn't mean that they aren't very dangerous for people with weak immune systems. And on top of that mRNA is very targeted, it's not something that carpet bombs your body like radiotherapy.

[lampington]

You mean 1918, I think?