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Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 59

By November 26, 2021Commentary

In your post-Thanksgiving tryptophan and blood sugar stupor, here are some research summaries that will perk you right up.

Because children tend to have asyptomatic or mild infections, it is likely we are more significantly underdetecting infections in this age group than in other age groups.  This study from Montreal, Canada used antibody prevalence surveys to estimate that while overall prevalence was low, at around 6%, 80% of infections in children had not been detected.  More evidence against the rush to vaccinate children.    (JAMA Study)

Everyone wants to know if the boosters will show more lasting protection against infection than the original vaccine doses did.  All we have so far is the antibody level evidence, because after the initial experience, we should have learned that it will take time to assess effectiveness in the real world.  This study using persons aged 50 and older from the UK indicates that after the booster dose, antibody levels were much higher than after the second doses.  Sounds good, but again, we will have to monitor decay and actual effectiveness.  (Medrxiv Study)

Immune responses are generated both by cells and proteins (antibodies and others) circulating in the blood, but also by those in other tissues.  Those localized responses can be important in limiting infection and disease, particularly in the upper respiratory tract.  This paper examined those localized responses following infection and found responsive immune cells in the lungs and adjacent lymph nodes and other relevant tissue locations.  In particular, memory B and T cell activity was identified.   (Science Article)

We are starting to see more research assessing protection from CV-19 infection.  This study followed a cohort of people, 62% of whom had been infected.  Not only did they demonstrate that prior infection was effective against infection, but also against serious disease, and they ascertained the levels of circulating antibodies that appeared to be necessary for such protection.  Second infections were on average less serious than the initial one.  Interestingly, as scientists have become totally gutless and willing to follow the political line, so notwithstanding their findings, the authors suggest that we still need to vaccinate everyone.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This is an excellent study from Scotland in a large cohort followed over an extended time.  Among those in the group who had a prior infection, the risk of re-infection was 68% lower than the risk of infection in the group with no prior infection, and the risk of hospitalization was 74% lower.  In addition, when these persons with prior infection became vaccinated, they had an even lower risk of subsequent infection, much lower than vaccinated persons with no prior infection.  Prior infection-derived immunity for the win.  (Medrxiv Paper)

A cohort of people was followed with repeated antibody tests in Texas, including some children.  Over 40% of children showed evidence of infection by the last test date.  Antibodies persisted over the entire course of testing following infection, indicating once more that infection-derived adaptive immunity is durable.  And why are we vaccinating these children?  (Medrxiv Paper)

Prisons present an interesting test bed because of the captive population, although they do not represent the overall population demographics.  This paper looked at the relative transmission by vaccinated and unvaccinated persons in the prison setting.  It was not, however, a contact tracing study, it merely looked at duration of positivity following infection and culturability of virus.  In that regard it found no significant difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated prisoners who became infected.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This is a slightly revised version of the UK household transmissions study that found that on average the vaccines were as protective against Delta as Alpha, but weren’t overwhelmingly protective against infection.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This study from the Netherlands finds that the vaccines may have been less effective against Delta, but this diminishing effectiveness itself declines after 60 days.  On the other hand, having a prior infection appears very effective against infection by a variant.  (Medrxiv Paper)

You get the picture by now that a lot of research is emerging on the effect of prior infection and of vaccination.  This is yet another study looking at breakthrough infections, this one also from the Netherlands.  A cohort of about 370 persons was followed after vaccination.  Breakthrough infection rates increased over time, but serious disease was rare.  Infections after vaccination appeared to occur more frequently with Delta, but this can be a time from vaccination effect.  Viral loads were lower in asymptomatic infections than symptomatic ones.  There was some suggestion that Delta breakthrough infection was accompanied by higher viral loads.  As you would expect, older persons were more vulnerable to symptomatic breakthrough infection.   (Medrxiv Paper)

We know by now that there is a geographic pattern in epidemic waves, we don’t know exactly what drives those patterns.  This paper examines the pattern within the US and the nearby areas of countries which border us to the South and North.  The pattern shows up fairly clearly with three large geographic regions–the South, the Northeast and the central and Western US.  The authors also did a test against temperature, finding a correlation with case levels.  (Medrxiv Paper)

Join the discussion 9 Comments

  • Darin Kragenbring says:

    Hi Mr. Roche,

    If the vaccines do not stop infections but do lessen serious disease, what would the likely mechanism be for this difference? Is it because a vaccinated person has enough antibodies to quickly overwhelm the virus, compared to an unvaccinated person?

    Thank you for breaking me out of my stupor!

    Darin

    • Kevin Roche says:

      It could be for a couple of reasons, and the same applies to people with a prior infection. Nothing except wrapping your self in saran wrap will stop exposure, and typically that practice leads to a rapid death. So we can all still get exposed. Two things may limit any resulting infection quickly. One is a level of antibodies, and potentially T cells or other immune cells, resident in the upper respiratory tract which can prevent significant replication or a level of circulating antibodies which quickly are dispatched to that area. The second is a quick memory B and/or T cell response which rapidly generates an antibody and/or T cell reponse to the upper respiratory tract. If the body reacts quickly, the virus is likely to be cleared before it is replicating in sufficient numbers to spread further into bodily systems and cause serious disease. This is a very simplified presentation of an astoundingly complex system.

  • Dan says:

    What exactly does asymptomatic infection mean? Does it mean you feel completely normal or maybe have a cough or runny nose? What does an antibody test cost? I keep thinking in a sane world people should have the option of getting a vaccinated card if they already have antibodies. I also wonder if I could have had Covid but didn’t know because symptoms were very minor.

    • Kevin Roche says:

      definitions are different in different research. It tends to be a pretty broad symptom list. Asymptomatic just means you don’t have any of this long list of supposed CV-19 symptoms. If you start asking people about a list of symptoms, they are going to answer yes more often that if you just ask them to describe any way in which they have felt unwell. Bad methodology. So we call a lot of CV-19 cases symptomatic that probably aren’t

  • Godoggo says:

    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712

    Gundry’s findings—using a standard cardiac test—strongly suggest exactly what others have been saying: Covid is primarily a vascular disease and the vaccines appear to mimic the action of the disease, leading to “vascular events”—i.e., heart attacks, strokes, and so forth. The “increase in the PULS score from 11% 5 yr ACS risk to 25% 5 yr ACS risk” is significant change. Obviously, continued research is required.

    See also this article for an in depth discussion of the possible long term effects of Anti-idiotype Antibodies with Covid infection and Vaccination :

    https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/a-frightening-new-potential-explanation

    It certainly seems there is a lack of intrest, and or fear, in pursuing such answers. A few days ago, after this was published, someone from a very prestigious British institution–cardiology department, researcher, [whistleblower if you like] in this department had found something similar within the coronary arteries linked to the vaccine–inflammation from imaging studies–around the coronary arteries. They had a meeting and these researchers at the moment have decided that they’re not going to publish their findings because they are concerned about losing research funding from the drug industry.

    • Kevin Roche says:

      alex berenson, while I greatly admire his leadership in being anti-lockdown, is unfortunately statistically illiterate which he proves in post after post, and he is stuck on proving that the vaccines are dangerous. He is contributing to the deaths of people who might have avoided death if they had gotten vaccinated, just like RFK, Jr. has contributed to the deaths of children from measles and other childhood infectious diseases.

  • Godoggo says:

    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712

    Gundry’s findings—using a standard cardiac test—strongly suggest exactly what others have been saying: Covid is primarily a vascular disease and the vaccines appear to mimic the action of the disease, leading to “vascular events”—i.e., heart attacks, strokes, and so forth. The “increase in the PULS score from 11% 5 yr ACS risk to 25% 5 yr ACS risk” is significant change. Obviously, continued research is required.

    See also this article for an in depth discussion of the possible long term effects of Anti-idiotype Antibodies with Covid infection and Vaccination :

    https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/a-frightening-new-potential-explanation

    It certainly seems there is a lack of intrest, and or fear, in pursuing such answers. A few days ago, after this was published, “someone from a very prestigious British institution–cardiology department, researcher, [whistleblower if you like] in this department had found something similar within the coronary arteries linked to the vaccine–inflammation from imaging studies–around the coronary arteries.” They had a meeting and these researchers at the moment have decided that they’re not going to publish their findings because they are concerned about losing research funding from the drug industry.

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/evidence-of-heart-disease-after-covid-shot-exists-but-isnt-published-out-of-fear-cardiologist-says/

    • Kevin Roche says:

      while I agree that potential cardiovascular adverse events should be tracked closely, CV-19 is not primarily a vascular disease, it is primarily a respiratory disease. All you have to do is scan a few hundred death certificates to see that the most common chain in those cases where death is actually due to CV-19, is pneumonia and acute respiratory distress leading to death. And I am going to point out for what feels like the 100th time that all the studies using large claims databases or large EHR databases are not finding excess serious cardiac events in the larger adult population. there does appear to be excess myocarditis in younger males. if you don’t understand population health research, including for safety purposes, you don’t understand that these claim and EHR databases are absolutely the best source of data.

  • J. Thomas says:

    From nurses we know who have spent almost 2 years now treating Covid patients, their story is that this virus presents itself as respiratory disease. If not treated early, or for those with weak immune responses, it matures into complications with the vascular systems. They see many types of blood clots, heart issues that are not being listed on the death certs because people in these late stages die from pulmonary issues first. Somehow, a small portion of the vaccinated are taking on the vascular issues similar to late stage virus complications after receiving the shot(s).

    Also, about Europe’s explosion of ‘cases’ with ~70% vaccination rates in most EU countries. How do we know that the PCR testing scheme isn’t picking up the vaccine remnants as a ‘positive’? This would make perfect sense about what’s being reported as high ‘case’ rates, many with no or low level severity of disease.

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