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> There are many viruses for which we've tried and failed to produce effective vaccines.

This is the first time in modern history where every developed country in the world has top researchers expediting work on a vaccine. A virus has never been the world's top economic and political issue until now. Comparing it to vaccine research on other viruses is irrelevant.

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Not true at all. There are issues with making vaccines for some viruses that are well-understood and seemingly quite intractable. And what about HIV? We've spent far more resources trying to find a cure for that, and although some good treatments exist, there is no vaccine.

People don’t survive HIV and it mutates incredibly quickly.

Is it the mutation rate that makes it challenging? Or something else, line how it defeats the immune system?

Yeah HIV mutates extremely quickly. Over time people develope multiple strains circulating. Directly targets immune cells. Also I believe it tends to stitch itself into cells DNA and remain latent indeterminate amounts of time.

Mutation rate combined with the fact that no one has ever recovered from aids. Vaccines typically “teach” the body how to fend off a virus, but we’ve never seen someone do that once infected.

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