There May Never Be an AIDS Vaccine

Scientists, having spent 25 years and billions of dollars, are having doubts that there will ever be a successful AIDS vaccine:

Most scientists involved in Aids research believe that a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever and some have admitted that effective immunisation against the virus may never be possible, according to an unprecedented poll conducted by The Independent.

A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of Aids scientists after the failure of a trial of a promising vaccine at the end of last year. It just was the latest in a series of setbacks in the 25-year struggle to develop an HIV vaccine.

The Independent's survey of more than 35 leading Aids scientists in Britain and the United States found that just two were now more optimistic about the prospects for an HIV vaccine than they were a year ago; only four said they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago.

Nearly two thirds believed that an HIV vaccine will not be developed within the next 10 years and some of them said that it may take at least 20 more years of research before a vaccine can be used to protect people either from infection or the onset of Aids.

A substantial minority of the scientists admitted that an HIV vaccine may never be developed, and even those who believe that one could appear within the next 10 years added caveats saying that such a vaccine would be unlikely to work as a truly effective prophylactic against infection by the virus.

They may actually save more lives by not creating a vaccine than by creating one. Why? At least now most people in high risk categories are either not engaging in risky behavior or are trying to use protection methods that have a high degree of success. Give some of these people a vaccine that's they think will protect them and it's katie bar the door. Before you know it we'll be back to 1980 and the bathhouses and activities where the disease was able to spread so easily. Given that no vaccine is perfect, and vaccines against viruses are difficult to get right thanks to the ability of the virus to modify itself, it might be safer for society to continue without one.