could a polio vaccine help us fight cover-19 when I first heard that idea I thought there's no way, polio has nothing to do with coronaviruses turns out it's not as crazy an idea as I first thought I called up one of the researchers who's proposing it Dr. Robert Gallo.

Dr. Gallo was one of the co discoverers of HIV and he is a huge name in biomedical research this has a chance a moment like this is for a decisive action and we think it has a real chance of stopping the epidemic so how could a vaccine for polio keep you from contracting and totally unrelated disease generally speaking it comes down to what the oral polio vaccine does to your immune system more specifically how it interacts with your innate immune system versus your adaptive immune system think of your favorite spy movie you know like when the spy is invading the compound like James Bond's trying to get in to sneak into the the base of the bad guy the innate immune system is kind of more like the guard dog that's you know walking around it's it's not specifically looking for a James Bond but it knows that anybody who comes over the wall wearing a ski mask it needs to get bit your innate immune system is the guard dog it's not looking for anything specific it just attacks anything that looks dangerous I would say the adaptive response is more like a sort of a Special Forces sniper it has the picture of James Bond it knows what James Bond looks like and it was exactly who they're targeting when you give someone any form of a vaccine you're training the sniper you're giving your adaptive immune system a picture of the virus and saying next time you see this kill it the oral polio vaccine doesn't just train the sniper it also startles the guard dog that's because it's what's called a live attenuated vaccine a live attenuated vaccine contains a complete virus or bacteria that's been weakened in the lab it wakes up the guard dog and that guard dog is angry or to use actual scientific terms here it activates your innate immune response unlike the oral polio vaccine the polio vaccine you have injected is not live and attenuated it's what's called an inactive vaccine inactivated vaccines don't use complete live virus and bacteria they're made using a physical process like heat or chemicals like formaldehyde to inactivate little pieces of bacteria or viruses those pieces great at building adaptive immunity but they don't really spook the guard dog so the idea here is that the oral polio vaccine would amp up your innate immune response which would release that guard dog on Tsarskoe v2 now you might be wondering why your innate immune system isn't just doing that on its own why would it need help from a live attenuated vaccine to stop Kovan so it turns out that high schoo v2 can make your innate immune system act kind of erratically and even block it from responding that causes lung inflammation and fluid buildup that you would see in severe Kovach cases taking the oral polio vaccine might help keep that from happening you could fight off the virus early before it really establishes a good infection and then later on hopefully that's enough to prevent this inflammatory lung destruction that happens on in the in the later process of Tsarskoe b2 infection so the big question is will the live attenuated oral polio vaccine wake up your innate immune systems guard dog enough to prevent you from getting kovin 19 this has a chance if it works my hundred percent sure no I'm a hundred percent sure of almost nothing so you know not only percent sure but we think it has a real chance of stopping the epidemic so I think we're looking at interventions that might buy us a little bit of time but for a bonafide Tsarskoe between vaccine emerges in 2021 hopefully I also want to mention that the oral polio vaccine is not the only live attenuated vaccine that's being considered vaccines for tuberculosis and measles are also in the mix and the idea is that they would also boost your innate immune response even in the best case scenario these options are really only going to protect you in the short so maybe for a few months at a time that means that you would have to take them every few months until there's a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 available and when you develop a very good coronavirus vaccine which is specific which is long lasting that would be great but the truth of the matter is we can't it's certainly not in time for this epidemic and further truth of the matter is you never can give a date for a vaccine I mean I hear a lot of suggestions for about the months will take to get it but reality is you have a vaccine when you have a vaccine so at the end of the day these are really just buying as time you can buy us even more time by staying home washing your hands avoiding large gatherings keeping your distance from other people and wearing a mask maybe just sit on your couch and binge your favorite American Chemical Society YouTube series stay safe everyone [Music]