Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 174

Inhaling aerosols which contain CV-19 virions is the most likely method of transmission.  This research, with a relatively low number of subjects, examined number of virus particles in exhaled aerosols across several variants.  Alpha, Delta and Omicron did have higher numbers of virions in exhalations than did earlier strains, which may account in part for their greater infectiousness.  And persons who were vaxed also had high levels of particles in exhalations.  (JID Article)

And another study on a similar topic, but with a contradictory result, finds similar viral loads by PCR test in later Omicron variant infections as in the pre-Omicron strains.  I suspect this could partly be a waning vax effect.  But it also suggests that greater infectiousness in these later Omicron variants isn’t due to higher viral loads.  (JID Article)

People who try to raise safety issues about vaccines want to ignore effects of CV-19 infections and potential confounding.  Here is an example of why this is important is this study finding that people who had a prior moderate to severe infection before being vaxed, were more likely to report any adverse event.  (JID Article)

I don’t know why we are wasting time on further boosters.  The research, including this study from Norway, are pretty clear that they don’t provide any greater or longer lasting protection than the original doses, on the contrary they seem less effective from the start.  This research found almost no effectiveness from shortly after vax against mild infections, and modest and quickly reducing protection against severe disease.  (JID Study)

Humans have significant daily variations in various biochemical processes, including immune responses.  This interesting study from Israel finds that being vaxed in the morning as opposed to afternoon or evening appears to result in greater protection against infection, but potentially not against severity of infection.  The effect was greatest in children and the elderly.  (Medrxiv Article)

The original vax formulations and the supposed Omicron-specific boosters show little ability to generate neutralizing antibodies against the most recent Omicron variants, according to this study.  Having a prior infection substantially boosts that neutralization level.   (Medrxiv Paper)

I remain dubious about “long” CV-19, but here is another large study, from Sweden, showing persistence of some symptoms in a high percent of patients for an extended period, including in hospitalized and non-hospitalized persons.  Fatigue and anxiety/depression were among the most common lasting symptoms, which is why I am dubious.  Lots of people feel fatigued and have mental health issues at the best of times.  Hospitalization also led to more lasting symptoms.  (SSRN Paper)

This study from Qatar gives another great reason to not waste time or money vaxing children.  From the start, the vax had very limited effectiveness against infection, which dropped to basically nothing in a very short time.  Protection was somewhat better in adolescents than children, but still not enough, given the lack of risk of serious disease, to justify vax for this age group.  (NEJM Article)

It isn’t just the US that over-attributed deaths to CV-19.  Other nations did as well, and Finland has semi-fessed-up,  acknowledging that as many as 40% of deaths initially attributed to CV-19 were not due to the infection.  Finland at least has a rigorous review process that prevents these deaths from showing up in the official statistics.  The US could benefit from that.  (Finland Article)