Our immune system is the ‘world’s best drugmaker’

Our immune system is the ‘world’s best drugmaker’

Our immune system is the 'world's best drugmaker'

an hour ago

A woman participates in a COVID-19 vaccine study at the Research Centres of America in Hollywood, Florida. File/ Tribune News Service

Michelle Cortez, Tribune News Service

A global push is on to develop a vaccine to slow the spread of COVID-19, and experts hope several will be ready in 2021. Yet even with one, the coronavirus is likely to remain with us for years, demanding long efforts to find a cure for those who still fall sick.

In humanity's struggle against viruses over millennia, prevention with vaccines has been far more successful than treatment with drugs. In fact, modern medicine has come up with a true cure for only one viral infection. For many serious infections, the best approaches are a