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Putin says Russia is close to creating cancer vaccines
(www.reuters.com)
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There is never going to be a "cancer vaccine". Cancer isn't a single disease, it is more like a whole category. It is like claiming you are going to develop a vaccine against any and all respiratory diseases or against all kinds of heart problems.
Cuba has vaccines for different cancers already
It's plural in the story
Yes, but it is also not going to be a whole set of vaccines against all kinds of cancers developed in secret and finished and released at the exact same time. That just doesn't make sense for a real set of vaccines, just for one that is invented for propaganda purposes.
The article says "for individual therapy", so Russia is likely working on the same personalized "vaccines" that other researchers have been working on for quite some time - ones that utilize the individual patient's immune system to attack the specific cancer. Not something that everyone would go out and get immunized against. This isn't mind-blowing, but if you were Putin wouldn't you want to put it some positive news right now too?
That's not the way science is done. The researchers need input before they submit for publication as well, and they need to publicise the trial to recruit participants.
Also to drum up funding. Lotta vaccine research labs do outreach to keep people informed/hyped up about their research which brings in donor money and grants.
That too, to develop anything actually usable with a confidence that it works you would need fairly large trials.
I think you misread the story. It says
I think you misread it as "we will create comprehensive, all-purpose oncovaccines", when in fact it just says "we will create oncovaccines", which is pretty likely given that it's 2024 now. To use your analogy, it's like saying they're close to creating some vaccines for some respiratory viruses, which is plausible.
I don't get why you say, "any and all... all kinds of cancers developed in secret and finished and released at the exact same time." There is nothing like that in the story – besides which, it just doesn’t make sense for a real set of vaccines.
I also don't understand why you said they'd be "developed in secret", as there's no reason to think that and it doesn't make sense.
Google "mRNA cancer research"
We're much closer to a preventative measure than you realize.
I never said that there won't be any vaccine against individual cancers, just not one vaccine against the whole category. Anyone having an actual vaccine for one of those ready to be released soon would specify details while the general term "cancer vaccine" makes a much better propaganda term because the kind of people who fall for blatant propaganda need it to be simplistic.