There appears to be quite a bit of confusion about what immunity means for the COVID-19 vaccines that are in use in the U.S. and Europe. These are the 2 mRNA-based vaccines and the DNA-based vaccine:
Clinical trial results from 3 vaccines show that the vaccines have good efficacy. This means that they protect the people who receive the vaccine from getting severe COVID-19. Two of the vaccines are based on a new technology that has not been used before in approved vaccines. The technology is new, however, it is not completely different from some other vaccine technologies. The two vaccines deliver instructions (in the form of nucleic acid) for your own cells to make a protein that the virus makes, so your body will recognize when the virus is present and prevent it from infecting your cells. …
An imbalanced immune response appears to be the key to whether a person develops severe COVID-19 with pneumonia and other complications such as coagulopathy (excessive formation of blood clots), impaired kidney function, neurological issues, and heart complications. Multiple mechanisms likely contribute to the variability in the immune response within the population and determine whether a person has asymptomatic disease, mild disease, or severe disease with potentially fatal complications. …
Obesity is associated with a pro-inflammatory state. Aging is also associated with changes in the immune system. Could there be a common change in inflammatory mediators in both of these populations that contributes to the increased risk of developing severe COVID-19?
Dr. Ajay Gupta, MD, MBBS (Chief Scientific Officer of Rockwell Medical, Inc) thinks so. He thinks the connection is prostanoids, in particular prostaglandin D2 and thromboxane A2. Prostaglandin D2, in particular, increases with age and obesity, providing a potential molecular link between these two conditions and the risk of developing severe COVID-19.
Prostaglandin D2 has complex effects that vary depending on which cell is responding and the receptor that it activates. The effects of prostaglandin D2 mediated by activation of one of its receptors (DP2) can contribute to symptoms of severe COVID-19. Signaling through DP2, prostaglandin D2 can cause an impaired antiviral immune response called the interferon response and can suppress the activity of multiple immune cells. Together, these effects prevent the body from clearing the virus and virally infected cells. Thus, these immune-suppressing effects of DP2 signaling let the virus replicate and cause severe pneumonia in the lungs and potentially infect and damage other tissues. Additionally, prostaglandin D2 signaling through DP2 triggers bronchoconstriction that makes it harder to breathe. …
As the cold weather comes, I am beginning to plan how to socialize safely. It will be harder to do outside visits or visits with the doors and windows open to keep ventilation high. This means I need to think more carefully about who is inside my social interaction bubble. Each household that is part of the circle extends my circle.
It rapidly becomes a complex diagram of overlapping circles. It only takes one person in any of these overlapping circles to contract SARS-CoV-2, with or without symptoms of COVID-19, and the virus can get into my circle.
So, as we move into the cooler weather, knowledge is key. Know where the people you socialize with have been. Know how many other people they have encountered, especially in close proximity. More people means more distance between you and them and keep those masks on! …
As researchers evaluate patients that develop severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV2, they are discovering answers to why some people become so critically ill and others do not. A pair of papers in Science by international teams of scientists led by Jean-Laurent Casanova reports reasons for why ~14% of severe cases of COVID-19 occur. Importantly, this information is clinically useful and will help screen at-risk individuals, prioritize vaccination, and treat patients. Additionally, these findings support a key theory regarding why COVID-19 shows so much variability: Interferon signaling varies within the population.
Genetic Variation that Compromises Interferon Signaling
In the first study, researchers proposed that genetic variations in the population may underlie susceptibility to severe COVID-19 and established the COVID Human Genetic Effort to identify such genetic mutations. …
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria ( Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii) that are delivered by a bite from an infected tick. Although antibiotics can treat Lyme disease, some people do not realize they have been infected. The longer a person waits to receive treatment, the worse the outcome is likely to be. Thus, an effective vaccine would be tremendously helpful for people in regions where the disease-carrying ticks are common. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. estimates ~300,000 people are infected annually.
Valneva is a company that has completed Phase II clinical trials with a vaccine that contains parts of the protein called OspA from multiple bacterial strains. This means the vaccine could provide protection against more than one type of Lyme disease-causing bacteria. Importantly, the vaccine should be effective against the species and serotypes common in Europe — B. burgdorferi (serotype 1), B. afzelii (serotype 2), B. garinii (serotypes 3, 5, and 6) and B. bavariensis (serotype 4) — and the one species in North America — B. burgdorferi. …
Lots of confusion out there today. Yesterday, I saw a tweet in the news part of Twitter titled, “CDC says recovered COVID-19 patients will have immunity for about three months.”
For some, the virus is just a part of the risk of life and nothing to be terribly concerned about; for others, the virus is terrifying and any risk of exposure is too much.
Several aspects of the pandemic foster fear, especially in people who are risk averse and uncomfortable with the unknown:
Like many people, I enjoy taking walks in the woods and playing with my dogs at the park. Where I live, every nature walk or even being in my own backyard carries the risk of getting Lyme disease. Consequently, I have been eagerly waiting for a Lyme vaccine. Valneva has a vaccine that is showing promise in Phase II clinical trials. The results are encouraging enough that Pfizer and Valneva have joined forces to bring this to Phase III testing and hopefully to the market.
Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is caused by several related species of bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii). A person gets the bacterial infection from a bite from an infected tick. Sometimes, but not always, the tick bite will produce a telltale bull’s eye rash, which indicates the tick bite delivered the bacteria. …