A Head Full of Coronavirus Research, Part 77

Here is the fun observation of the day, now that Minnesota has taken a clear lead over Sweden in the deaths per million category, we have a shot at catching Florida.  We are 780 deaths per million, Florida is right about national average in the low 900s.  Florida has an older population and a much higher nursing home population.  Florida has been open for months, including real school, and they don’t think much of masks down there.  People live pretty normal lives.  How are they not awash in cases and deaths?  Could it be that all these untested, unscientific, not proven, not supported by data, responses that states like Minnesota have engaged in are actually making things worse?  Yeah, ponder the unponderable.  I think the answer just might be yes.  And, heck, that US average is in range, we Minnesotans like to think we are above average in everything, let’s go for that number too.

The axis of evil has a substitute member, now consisting of Bill Gates, Andy Slavitt and Michael Osterholm.  Gates probably should have been there all along, but his recent statements that Americans shouldn’t get the vaccines, which we largely paid for, first, and his insistence that we should all pretend that there actually is an epidemic through 2022, guarantee him a lifetime membership.  Centi-billionaires should STFU.  This guy has no disruption in his life and no regard for what is being done to low-income people, minorities and anyone with a health issue other than CV-19.

If you would like more information on the vaccines, this site has some.  www.buildvaccinetrust.com   I haven’t read in detail, but seems to have official information on CV vaccines and wants to ensure that people understand the potential risks.  I don’t know how serious the issues raised there are, but I do totally agree that vaccines are very important and we have to work for full transparency so people don’t begin to mistrust them, which would lead to huge loss of life.

Another study on pre-existing immunity to CV-19, contrasting it with immunity developed as a result of infection.  (Science Article)  The 156 patients who had CV-19 infection all had antibody responses to both primary units of the spike protein.  Among 34 samples from before the epidemic, five also had antibody activity against CV-19, but only against one of the subunits.  The researchers then examined a number of pre-existing samples from different populations and found similar levels of prevalence of cross-reactive antibodies.  Interestingly, among the populations sampled, one from children aged 1 to 16 found that 21 out of 48 out had such antibodies.  The cross-reactive antibodies were tested and found to generally be neutralizing, preventing cell entry.

And another paper finding that adaptive immune responses to CV-19 infection appear pretty long-lasting.  (Medrxiv Paper)   The hysteria mob is always looking for something and how long adaptive immunity lasts has been one of their favorites.  Recent studies, however, are pretty clear it lasts for a long time.  This one followed patients for 6 months and found a lasting T cell response.

An honest assessment of CV-19 testing would be that it has been a disaster everywhere.  This paper points out another issue, that there is high variability in the quality of swabs.  Really, you mean human behavior could be inconsistent and account for errors?  (Medrxiv Paper)

This paper provides support for the notion that mass testing doesn’t make any difference in bringing an epidemic under control when a case surge is already occurring.  Are you listening Minnesota officials.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This study looked at a large number of PCR tests in Los Angeles, finding that about about 42% of positives were among people who were asymptomatic.  Across the tests, there was a 4.2% positivity rate among asymptomatic persons.  (Medrxiv Paper)   The authors noted that they had little information about how these people may have been exposed.  They think the value of the study is to show that we should do even more testing.  I think the value is to show how pointless it is to test for a pathogen that doesn’t make a large percent of people have any symptoms.

And let us end this version with a real upbeat note.  The authors of this paper assessed whether it was likely that mutations in the spike region of CV-19 could result in immune evasion, including immune responses prompted by vaccination.  They concluded that this was in fact likely.  Oh, great.  But not really completely unexpected.  Have I mentioned that we just need to adapt to the presence of this virus?  (Medrxiv Paper)