Vaccine experts are confused and dismayed? Really?

Sometimes it seems like the world is going crazy.

AIDS vaccine researchers are worried about the future of their field after learning an experimental HIV vaccine not only does not work, but just might make recipients more susceptible to infection with the AIDS virus.

They are worried about their volunteers and the future of AIDS vaccines in general. And they are worried because they cannot understand how a vaccine would make a person more vulnerable.

Really? They can't understand why their vaccine doesn't work? Let me break it down. It's called a virus. We cannot cure viruses. We don't even have a cure for the virus that causes the common cold. We simply let it run its course (and take more vitamin C). And HIV is a whole lot more complex than the common cold virus. How could these people possibly think that they can come up with a virus in only twenty years of trying.

Don't get me wrong, I do have compassion for the sick. And it would be phenomenal for a virus to be discovered. And our country's pharmaceutical industry offers the best hope of that happening. But we're talking about a behaviourally-spread disease here. The best way to cure the disease is to not get it, and the best way to not get the disease is to not engage in behaviour that leads to it.