Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 49

Anyone who thinks I was kidding about the pro-regressives being immune (both from natural ideological infection and periodic booster vaccination) to wake-up calls, only needs to read the headlines about doubling down on the whacko agenda and the descriptions of those who voted Republican as troglodyte racists to see how right I was.  And if you wonder why I literally despise these people it is because they are fundamentally authoritarians and totalitarians–they clearly believe that they are entitled to tell everyone what they must think, what they must say, what they must believe, how they must behave.  The pro-regressives are viscerally opposed to individual freedom in any sphere of life.  This authoritarianism is wholly inimical to the dignity and rights that every human has inherent in their existence.  And I will fight this ideology in whatever form and from whatever quarter it appears.

And I don’t expect that the election results will cause the whackos to back off of vaccine mandates, mask mandates, torturing our children and all the other epidemic policies they have endorsed.  But I believe the general population is increasingly fed up with these policies and recognizing that they have had no effect, other than to make us all miserable.

Here is an excellent review of the recent CDC study purporting to show that those with only prior infection were at greater risk of hospitalization due to CV-19 than those who were vaccinated.  (BI Article)

I keep harping on one missing piece of data from Minnesota and elsewhere being the failure to identify how many patients supposedly hospitalized for CV-19 actually went into the hospital for another reason and acquired the virus in the hospital.  This study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation sheds some light on the issue and finds that over 10,000 patients contracted CV-19 in the hospital, but the analysis is primarily limited to those 65 and over so must be an undercount.  In addition, it is highly likely that hospitals hid a number of cases which arose in the hospital, since they are penalized for such hospital-acquired infections.  21% of those who got CV-19 in the hospital died.  I am guessing that at least 5% of hospitalizations involve CV-19 acquired in a health care setting.  (KFF Study)

The latest UK vaccine surveillance report is out.  As with other recent weeks’ reports, this one shows a falling level of protection against infection, but continuing effectiveness against hospitalization and death.  Notwithstanding nonsense about how infectious and dangerous Delta is supposed to be, the vaccines show equal effectiveness against Alpha and Delta.  And of course, effectiveness appears lower in the elderly.  (UK Report)

An excellent piece of research comparing circulating antibody levels over an up-to 9 month period following vaccination versus B memory cell development, and studying the response to breakthrough infections in health care workers.  While circulating antibody levels lessened, B memory cell numbers were increasing during the entire follow-up period.  And upon infection, the B memory cells fairly quickly produced antibodies which reached the blood and mucosal tissues.  The study, however, again suggests the source of a deficiency in vaccine-derived immune response versus that from infection.  In infection, antibodies develop against other than the spike protein and those responses occur in mucosal tissues as well as the lymph system.  (SSRN Study)

This study confirms the somewhat positive news about the vaccines, they do have a good level of protection against hospitalization and death.  Based on data from 18 states, being vaccinated was associated with much lower odds of being hospitalized and lower odds of dying if hospitalized.  But please note that a significant number of vaxed persons were hospitalized and some died.  And this was relatively early following vaccination, and the authors found that even with the limited follow-up time since vaccination, the protective effect lessened over time.  Also no adjustment for possible prior infection in the unvaxed or vaxed, which could change the results to some extent.  The authors conclude that waning immunity rather than the Delta variant was responsible for any apparent change in effectiveness over time.  In fact, effectiveness against Delta and Alpha appeared roughly equivalent.   (JAMA Article)

Okay, this is fascinating.  People have been constructing libraries of human antibodies for a couple of decades.  They are used for various research purposes.  Using a library built over 20 years ago, researchers found antibodies that reacted against CV-19.  Hmmm.  Supports the notion that many of us have an adaptive immune response from prior coronavirus infections, including some that must be pretty similar to CV-19.  (Wiley Article)

This study from Italy examines characteristics of people who died from CV-19 and found what other studies have noted.  The median age of those who died was over 80.  Men were more likely to die than women.  Almost all had serious diseases other than CV-19, most had several.  Quite a few deaths among the fully vaccinated.  Those who were vaccinated and died were even older and had even more serious diseases other than CV-19.  (Italy Report)