No, measles cannot mutate in such a way that the vaccine would no longer stop it. Measles doesn’t mutate anywhere near as quickly or dramatically as a disease like influenza, and it would need to simultaneously evolve the ability to bypass 5 (iirc) different human antibody types.
Could it happen on an unlimited timeframe if humanity somehow loses the ability/technology to modify or retarget existing vaccines? Sure, in a few tens of thousands of years, but I don’t think Starfleet will still be using our current MMR vaccine in the year 22,026.
Hope this helps or assuages fears. The real problem is insufficient vaccination causing gaps in herd immunity. I recommend vaccinating schoolchildren without their parents’ consent.
Going to CHUD counties in Florida and South Carolina to hunt the children of wealthy white families with vaccine-tipped darts is praxis
Driving the schoolbuses to a vaccine drive.
we need aerosolized vaccines, it would be easier simply gas the children
I’m confident we could set ourselves back 10,000 years if we really tried.
I think we could set ourselves back that far very quickly. Dropping the bomb would do it in a matter of moments. But I think we’d spring back somewhat faster than that.
That’s reassuring.
@grok I have an idea
They do have guard rails on that sort of thing if you order bespoke DNA. But that’s on some other stuff that nobody asked about.
With something as giga-infectious as measals I bet any big mutation would also make it that much harder to stay so optimally infectious. Think about how little you’d have to change a bird to turn it into a flightless bird. Any add ons make it too heavy, anything asymmetrical makes it not fly straight, stronger bones make it more resilient but then heavy again.
So if you get an influenza x measals collab it probably comes out shittier. So even if you had some asshole playing God they’re probably not good at it.
make sure to restart until you originate on Madagascar
Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to! You just need to an introduce an agent that compromises the immune systems of a population and makes the vaccines not work properly.
Yeah sure why not. Live your dream, don’t take what those nerds say at the science factory control your life.
The current school has failed spectacularly.
It’s a fair question. Plenty of viruses do mutate rapidly, especially other RNA viruses.
Measles can’t do it because of the lucky fact that the change required to escape immunity requires multiple simultaneous mutations that would render it likely unable to attach to human cells.
Is that high school knowledge?
Well, in MY school it was (RNA vs DNA viruses and their “virulence”. And how vaccines work). Just like Geography and World History. 🤷♂️
Yeah and measles is an RNA virus.
RNA viruses are the ones that typically mutate more rapidly, more easily escape immunity, which is why measles not being able to escape immunity is a pretty fair question imo, with an interesting answer that isn’t exactly intuitive.
OK, fair enough. This time I don’t get to bash gen Alphas, lol.
