Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI Are Backing Effort To Stop Respiratory Infections
5 111An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: [T]he payment company Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, says it will fund a new $500 million nonprofit whose goal is preventing both the common cold and the flu. Its eventual aim is to get rid of respiratory viruses altogether. The new organization, called Intercept, will use grants and investments to back prevention approaches, including vaccines, as well as large-scale air-cleaning systems for schools, offices, and other public spaces. In addition to Stripe, other funders include Anthropic, Flu Lab, and the OpenAI Foundation, as well as Bill Gates and several traders at the quantitative investing fund Jane Street Capital, according to an Intercept spokesperson.
"I think we treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but have really underweighted the burden that they impose on society," says Nan Ransohoff, the Stripe executive leading the initiative along with Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year. On average, people spend 5% of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu, according to Ransohoff. Despite that, drug companies put relatively little effort into preventing colds. Part of the problem is that the sniffles are caused by more than 200 different viruses, according to the American Lung Association, with rhinoviruses being the most common culprits. There are so many that it typically doesn't pay to try to stop any one of them with a vaccine. "When pharma companies look at it, it's not as attractive as other things they could work on," says Ransohoff. "So it hasn't attracted the resources."
[...] The project takes inspiration from efforts to fight the covid-19 virus, where Veesler's group was among those involved in the speedy development of vaccines, antiviral drugs, and antibodies. According to Ransohoff, Intercept's advisors will include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, as well as Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed. A key challenge for Intercept will be coming up with ways to counter many viruses at one time. That accounts for the interest in air-cleaning technology, such as using strong ultraviolet light to inactivate viruses. The idea, the group says, is to remove them from the air in the same way municipalities remove impurities from the water supply before it's piped to people's homes.
5 comments
Re:Backfire (Score: 5, Informative)
by Rei ( 128717 ) on Thursday June 25, 2026 @05:28AM (#66209462)
That's not how this works [slashdot.org]. Common misunderstanding.
It's great that you're so proud of your immune system - and you should be, it's amazing! Now, if I handed you a vial of serum from an ebola patient, would you rub it all over yourself, because "You Have An Immune System!"?
Do you understand that the way that the innate immune system attacks pathogens is by attacking / disregulating your body, and that this is harmful? You know how much everyone (rightly) hates "inflammation" and the harm it does? That's what inflammation is, it's the activity of the innate immune system.
Do you understand that viruses have evolved specifically to disregulate the body in order to avoid the immune system, that this disregulation is commonly scattershot rather than focused, and its impacts may or may not go away immediately - or in some cases, even ever - after infection? And that some viruses undergo long-term persistent states in the body?
Do you understand how associated viruses are with sequelae (do you understand what sequelae are)? As a random example, read the second paragraph of this article [wikipedia.org]. And that's just the start.
Do you understand how common autoimmune disease is, and that it most commonly develops as a result to antigen exposure, such as during infection? That frequent and severe inflammation encourages autoimmune disease, and can even cause cancer (repairing inflammatory and viral damage requires cell replication, and the replications that occur as part of the immune response itself can specifically lead to lymphoma)?
No, getting sick is not harmless just because you "got better". Sorry.
Re:Backfire (Score: 5, Informative)
by dargaud ( 518470 ) on <slashdot2@gdaTIGERrgaud.net minus cat> on Thursday June 25, 2026 @01:23AM (#66209264)
Because many professionals don't work for those that try to sell you something. Most epidemiologists or virologues or others actually work for research centers or non-gov entities and have no money in the game. So yes, I'd trust a WHO epidemiologist any day over someone trying to sell me an "instant flu nasal spray vaccine" or similar; but if they say those work, why not...
Re:Backfire (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Thursday June 25, 2026 @02:07AM (#66209296)
Today when they're programming our own cells to create parts of real viruses...
Tell me you don't understand how viruses reproduce naturally without telling me you don't understand how viruses reproduce naturally.
Just pay your damn taxes (Score: 5, Insightful)
by crmarvin42 ( 652893 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @11:59PM (#66209192)
Seriously, I am sick of these vanity charity projects. Just pay your fair share of taxes, and let us, collectively, decide on our priorities. Because this shit will not be evenly applied, and considering the popularity of a antivax beliefs, and the level of international travel, it his will simply not work without a global commitment. And as bad as the cold and flu can be, there are kids who are going into debt with their school over getting breakfast.
Re:Just pay your damn taxes (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Thursday June 25, 2026 @12:15AM (#66209202)
How about basic affordable health care for all by making the billionaire class pay some reasonable tax rate? Instant increase in well being along with eventual increased life span. No medical breakthrough required.