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Amazon is Reportedly Working on a Cure for the Common Cold

posted by martyb on Sunday March 08 2020, @01:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the facial-tissue-sales-will-plummet dept.

takyon writes:

Amazon is reportedly working to find a cure for the common cold

Amazon disrupted the books, grocery, and shipping business, and now it's set its sights on viral infections. The tech company has apparently tasked a team of employees to research and develop a cure for the common cold, a CNBC report indicates today. Under an effort called "Project Gesundheit," three people familiar with the effort tell CNBC that Amazon is specifically looking to develop a vaccine that would stave off cold infections. This small team exists under the broader Grand Challenge group within Amazon, CNBC says.

This is not a coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) story. Do not discuss the coronavirus.

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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday March 09 2020, @02:29AM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 09 2020, @02:29AM (#968386)
    They are working on a universal flu vaccine by targeting a common surface protein that's present across most variants. In theory, this group might be looking to do something similar, only as a polyvalent vaccine targeting several common surface antigens across the different strains of the various virus types. Still, that's a pretty tall order. These antigens are not what our immune systems naturally target, so you need to convince it to. That also brings up the question as to why our immune systems don't normally go after them, and if there might be some unexpected issues in tricking it into.
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