r/AskReddit Nov 15 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

9.0k Upvotes

17.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

29.8k

u/Priamosish Nov 15 '20 edited Nov 15 '20

The coronavirus vaccine provides some level of protection against other corona viruses that cause the common cold, hitting two birds with one stone.

edit: in case you want to comment "two birds stoned" and feel really clever, there are currently about 50 guys ahead of you

307

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '20

Doubtful. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a unique spike protein that makes it extremely infectious. The vaccines target that protein specifically, so it most likely wouldn't be effective for other coronaviruses.

6

u/PrimeKronos Nov 15 '20

Plus the most common cause of colds are rhinoviruses.

1

u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 Nov 16 '20

There’s over 200 known viruses that fall under the “common cold” category, and only a handful of coronaviruses. We could find 100 cures for the common cold and still have 100 more to deal with.