In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.
How do you cure a protein in a stable shape?
That’s all a prion is, it’s just a misshapen but stable protein that causes other proteins to fold into that stable shape too.
You can’t vaccinate against a shape.
We can’t scan every protein in a body and selectively destroy the ones that shaped wrong.
The only thing to do is to destroy prions whenever they are found and with extreme prejudice. But, that’s expensive so it won’t get done.