News Wishfull thinking on Aids vaccine?

rynnor

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BBC NEWS | Health | HIV vaccine 'reduces infection'

Being reported as a big breakthrough but realistically the figures are too low and theres no science behind it.

They combined two failed Aids vaccines on a trial where the difference between the two groups of over 8000 people was 23 less infected in the vaccinated group than the control group - whoop de do :p

They have no scientific explanation of why the combination of two vaccines would work any better than when they were used individually so its likely to just be a fluke.

I smell pharmaceutical companies looking to sell off a load of junk vaccinations...
 

Chilly

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yes in absolute terms 24 is not a lot, but the relative decline when compared to the placebo control group is significant. I think this is a decent result and needs further exploration.
 

rynnor

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yes in absolute terms 24 is not a lot, but the relative decline when compared to the placebo control group is significant. I think this is a decent result and needs further exploration.

If it was a normal disease it might be more significant but HIV infection is so linked to human behaviours thats its going to be hard to establish proper control groups - perhaps there were more homosexuals or more unprotected sex in the control group - none can say.

With such a low infection rate you need a much bigger trial to show anything significant.

Finally, if these truly were effective vaccines surely the infection rate in the vaccinated group would only be a handful - this all screams statistical anomaly to me?
 

Chilly

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Hence the need for a bigger test. I agree it's difficult because you can't go around infecting people on purpose like you can with other very treatable diseases.
 

rynnor

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Hence the need for a bigger test. I agree it's difficult because you can't go around infecting people on purpose like you can with other very treatable diseases.

I'd love to see the rationale for this trial tbh - 'Hey we have some vaccines we developed that dont work to prevent HIV but we'd like to spend even more millions on a 3 year trial with 16,000+ people'.

How the hell did that get signed off?
 

nath

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Funnily enough, the title of that article has been changed since you posted to a much more optimistic one.
 

rynnor

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Funnily enough, the title of that article has been changed since you posted to a much more optimistic one.

Yeah - and yet the tone of the piece doesnt match the new title - reckon the drugs company nobbled em?
 

nath

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Yeah - and yet the tone of the piece doesnt match the new title - reckon the drugs company nobbled em?
I guess it depends on how you read it. I felt the tone of the piece was almost completely neutral - i.e. "It's not a miracle cure but it's entirely possible that there's something in it. Time will tell."

Well, that's what I took from it.
 

rynnor

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I guess it depends on how you read it. I felt the tone of the piece was almost completely neutral - i.e. "It's not a miracle cure but it's entirely possible that there's something in it. Time will tell."

Well, that's what I took from it.

Thats funny - when I re-read it I wondered if they had actually changed the opening paragraph - any way to see changes?

Edit - hmm the more I read it the more I'm convinced they completely changed that - lol
 

Chilly

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BBC often make lots of changes to articles, sadly there's no way to view the changes unless you are nifty with a google cache or the IA.
 

Scouse

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BBC science reporting is shit. Has been for years.
 

old.Tohtori

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For a problem as large as this, and i'm no doctor, but;

"Scientists announced last month that a combination of vaccines gave a 31% level of protection in trials among 16,000 heterosexuals aged 18-30."

...in my opinion warrants a buttload of more research.

The initial results don't have to be staggering to warrant further investigation.

I don't think we should trust pharmaceuticals willynilly, but no need to kill research on a fear of a conspiracy :p
 

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