Australian COVID vaccine cancelled after Phase I trials produced false positive HIV test results!

[thewayne]

Not exactly something you want to see in a vaccine!

From the article:
"The (vaccine's) molecular clamp is made from a HIV protein, which on its own is harmless. The molecular clamp stabilizes the coronavirus spike protein and presents it to the body in a way that promotes a good immune response. This is why the clamp technology is so vital," Taylor said.

He added that the clamp model vaccine had shown "good safety and immune response" against the coronavirus in early clinical trials, and the possibility for generating an HIV positive result had been thought to be low.

Yeah. Apparently not as low as they'd thought!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/australia/australia-vaccine-hiv-intl-hnk/index.html

Comments

[lxe]

I'd rather worry about a false negative (even if I were in the risk category and Australia at the same time). Why worry about a false positive?

[dewline]

Okay, that's still a little disturbing.

[foreverdawning]

If I were an official, I'd probably still distribute the vaccine if it's as safe as they say.

[silveradept]

That is definitely an issue that needs overcoming before distribution. People do not need the additional panic of possibly facing contracted HIV from a vaccine dose. That would be catnip for the anti-vax crowd, even if they're all false positives.

[graydon]

Remember that it's not the only vaccine; even counting only the "Western" ones, there are close to a dozen candidates in the pipeline.

This isn't something that means it doesn't work as a vaccine, but it's a very significant drawback other candidate vaccines don't have.

[armiphlage]

TB vaccines causes false positives for tests that check if you have active TB infections. Some countries still give them, on the grounds that preventing many people from a disease is worth not being able to reliably detect the presence of a disease, until more severe symptoms arise.

If no other COVID vaccine was available, it might be worth giving this one to those at high risk of dying of COVID in the short term, with the tradeoff that they wouldn't be able to swiftly detect future HIV infections. And if you currently are HIV+, it'd be a no-brainer.