Drowning in Coronavirus Research, Part 50 (Because I have lost track of the real number)

It is very interesting, I think, that the primary lasting immune defense to coronavirus re-infection appears to be through T cells as much as antibodies.  The last couple of weeks had some studies on T-cell cross-reactivity from prior strain infections.  Here are two new papers on T cell development in response to infection with the current strain.  In contrast to some of the research on antibodies, these papers suggest that a robust T cell defense against reinfection is raised by the initial infection.  (Medrxiv Paper 1)  (Medrxiv Paper 2)  That is very positive.

This article summarizes some of what is know about children and coronavirus.  (Nature Paper)   It confirms the much lower risk compared to adults and discusses theories as to why that is the case.

Finally, this paper is going to get a lot of headlines because it will be used by everyone who wants to justify lockdowns.  (Nature Paper)  It is a pathetic exercise, published by one of the two most significant science magazines in the world, but unfortunately one which has joined the trend toward steering its content in many areas by politics and ideology.  Smarter people than I have already devastatingly dismantled it.  Note the following lunacy regarding this paper.  It was written March 22nd!   Think the data and knowledge has changed a little since then.  They claim that the lockdowns prevented or delayed 62 million cases around the world.  And of course a huge number of deaths.  You may recall my post titled “How to Save a Million from Dying of Coronavirus”.  This is the same crap–make up a model (and, oh guess what model they are using) with a projection of a huge number of cases and deaths, and then when it doesn’t happen, what a genius you were.  The biggest assumption error is that they used an exponential growth rate that no data now supports, in fact every piece of evidence suggests it is absurdly high.   If they were at all correct, we would have seen explosive growth in infections as lockdowns have been lifted in various countries and states.  I am not going to say more about the paper, but it is clearly a worthless pile of elephant dung written solely to provide political cover for truly stupid policies.