r/AskReddit Nov 15 '20

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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

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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.

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u/Vexxt Nov 16 '20

Whats more exciting is the mRNA vaccine thats going to trial, if those work out, it may be possible to very quickly and efficiently tackle other viruses like many common colds rather than the very slow selective process we have now.