this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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"I think what we have is a universal vaccine against diverse respiratory threats," Pulendran said.

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[–] qualia@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Exactly. Our immune system is excellent but its immune cell exploration space is on the order of 10^11 potential receptors.

So since RNA viruses in particular can mutate so rapidly, we just use our brains to reduce that by 10+ orders of magnitude and target the antigens we want directly. The end result is the same, biotech is just smarter.

"Know your enemy and know yourself and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." ~biotech