Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Opinion: How did a covid-19 vaccine come out so fast, but we can't make an HIV vaccine?

 To understand this concern/opinion you first have to understand how the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine was made. As we all know, humans contain genetic code called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid), well viruses contain RNA as well. The vaccines made for covid-19 use this genetic material to train your immune system to fight this virus (either through mRNA strands or by using a viral vector to deliver the genetic nucelic acid). Its actually pretty neat and the concepts have been around for a bit... but it has me wondering.

We know Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a single strand RNA virus, so why have we not been able to create similar vaccines for it? See, they are both in the realm of riboviria, which means that they are RNA-dependent viruses, so something has to give. Is it that the medical research community doesn't believe these vaccines are effective? Or that they are making too much money on treating HIV? Or maybe its that they aren't being pumped enough government money to care yet? Who knows. Hopefully someone will make a vaccine soon though... or at least give us some answers as to if it is even possible.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

What does Binh Ho do for a living? What Bank does Bihn Ho own?

 After doing some digging we found that Mr. Binh Ho (now known from HBO Max's "House of Ho")  owns a large share of SWNB Bancorp INC. This company owns Southwestern National Bank and SWNB Investments and works with other banks in the region with its National Bank status.


Through Instagram we were able to confirm Mr. Ho's full name is Thu Binh Si Ho. It also appears that he and his son Washington Ho (who is listed on LinkedIn as a shareholder of Southwestern National Bank) are involved in multiple businesses including Voltstreet (an energy advising & consulting company) and may even be somehow involved with Golden Bloom Farms in Oklahoma (where Washington Ho's wife is from)... that's before mentioning whatever their deal with HBO was. One thing is for sure though - the House of Ho is diversified.