Virologist Chris Buck from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda (USA, Maryland) invented the most Friday-like remedy in the world. While developing a vaccine against the polyomavirus, he came up with an idea—why not craft a vaccine beer? Said and done, and Buck brewed that very beer, which simultaneously serves as a vaccine protecting against several virus types.
As Science News reports, for the development of his vaccine, the virologist used baker’s and brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and added virus-like particles that entered the system along with the hops.
First, Buck conducted testing on mice, and afterward, he himself became keen on the experiments. Without taking a break from his scientific drinking bout, the researcher noted that after consuming the beer vaccine, his body indeed generated antibodies against several types of the virus. True, to achieve this outcome, he had to drink more than one liter of beer. However, as he himself stated, Chris felt no side effects, apart from intoxication.
It is just that Buck’s superiors were not pleased with his experiments. The Ethics Committee for Research at the National Institutes of Health considered that to boost statistical significance of results and lessen the chance of random errors, such trials must be performed on a large sample, and they forbade the virologist from conducting observations on himself. But our protagonist does not yield—wipe away those tears! Buck declared that the vaccine beer is the most crucial work of his entire career, and he does not intend to stop halfway.
“It is so vital that I am willing to jeopardize my career,” announced the virologist. “My contract with the institute states that my vocation involves creating and spreading scientific understanding. This is precisely what I am doing: generating knowledge, disseminating it, and endeavoring to present it to the public.”
Video: Science News
Furthermore, Buck insists that nobody has the right to supervise his actions during his leisure time. And to be able to produce and consume his vaccine beer as a private individual, he even established a nonprofit organization. Now, he is Chef Gusteau, the founder and (thus far) sole employee of Gusteau Research Corporation.
When conceptualizing the name for his enterprise, he drew inspiration from the chef in the movie “Ratatouille,” Auguste Gusteau, whose motto is: “Anyone can cook.”
However, Chris did not remain alone with his experiment. Relatives actively assist him. They all sip the vaccine beer and report feeling at least as well as before: antibodies are present, and there are no adverse effects.
Bolstered by conviction in his creation, Buck seeks scientific acknowledgment for his papers and formulations, but his works have yet to undergo peer review by other scientists. The Ethics Committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) objected to publishing the research on the preprint server bioRxiv.org due to the scientist’s self-experimentation. Buck wrote a rebuttal but opted not to await the results and published the data on the complimentary universal repository zenodo.org.
“Bureaucracy hinders scientific progress, and that is intolerable to me,” states the virologist. “A week of people perishing due to ignorance about this is not trivial.”
We certainly marvel at such carelessness from Chris Buck’s colleagues regarding the beverage that birthed civilization, and we are already prepared to join in self-experimentation, particularly with two weeks of winter holidays ahead. Comrade Buck, if you are reading this, contact us by email, and we can arrange an international venture.
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