Wondering why there’s a COVID-19 vaccine but not one for HIV? Here’s your answer

Army Col. Sean Dooley, a doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, receives a COVID-19 vaccination, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 14, 2020. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The rapid development of several COVID-19 vaccines has compelled numerous web commenters to accusingly ask why the same hasn’t been done for HIV, a pandemic that has lasted nearly 40 years longer than the coronavirus.

However, a closer look at the different virology of coronavirus and HIV helps explain why the former has a soon-to-be widely available vaccine and the latter doesn’t.

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The aforementioned critics often claim that the lack of an HIV vaccine is due to the fact that HIV has most affected men and trans women who have sex with men, Black people, people of color, and intravenous drug users — marginalized people who tend to have less money and political power. Thus, the lack of an HIV vaccine can seem like a conspiratorial way to let these communities die off.

However, a big part of the reason that an HIV vaccine hasn’t been developed, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that the virus “mutates rapidly and has unique ways of evading the immune system.”

At present, scientists have researched about 14 different strains of HIV. Comparatively, there are at least six strains of coronavirus, “but that the mutation rate is low and the virus shows little variability, making it easier to develop a vaccine,” Reuters reports.

“HIV inserts itself into our DNA and remains there until those cells die, whereas [coronavirus] does not,” University of Western Australia virologist Associate Professor Alison Imrie told AFP, explaining another key difference in how each operates in the body.

Most vaccines are developed based on…

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