Vaccines are typically meant to protect against viruses or bacteria. Cancer is neither of those. hiv is a virus but the political will to produce effective treatments was not always there. I think a lot of young people underestimate the homophobia that was pervasive not all that long ago and how it was tied to the aids epidemic.
There are some promising efforts for vaccines against cancer. It’s teaching your immune system to kill cells that were supposed to die on their own. It’s a relatively recent development, though.
Plus, as should always be stated with cancer treatments, there is no singular “cancer”. It’s a class of related problems that need to be handled individually. Vaccine against prostate cancer shouldn’t be expected to work against breast cancer. Anything that claims to cure cancer in a blanket way should be treated with great suspicion.
Vaccines are typically meant to protect against viruses or bacteria. Cancer is neither of those. hiv is a virus but the political will to produce effective treatments was not always there. I think a lot of young people underestimate the homophobia that was pervasive not all that long ago and how it was tied to the aids epidemic.
There are some promising efforts for vaccines against cancer. It’s teaching your immune system to kill cells that were supposed to die on their own. It’s a relatively recent development, though.
Plus, as should always be stated with cancer treatments, there is no singular “cancer”. It’s a class of related problems that need to be handled individually. Vaccine against prostate cancer shouldn’t be expected to work against breast cancer. Anything that claims to cure cancer in a blanket way should be treated with great suspicion.