Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

The new guidance for COVID-19 which is combined with other respiratory illnesses no longer suggests 5-day isolation periods. (Photo by Luis Alvarez via Getty)

by Alexa Spencer

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new COVID-19 recommendations on March 1. The list of guidelines includes an end to five-day at-home isolation periods for people who test positive for the virus.

The updated guidelines calledRespiratory Virus Guidance offer a unified approach to addressing respiratory illnesses, rather than a COVID-19-specific guidance. All recommendations now apply to COVID-19, RSV, and the flu.

The question remains: Could the relaxed guidelines have a negative impact on frontline workers and communities of color? These groups are historically vulnerable to COVID-19 exposure and poor health outcomes if the virus is contracted.

If we continue to make sure that we have the levels of vaccine coverage that weve had before, we will be in good standing, says Dr. Reed Tuckson, the former commissioner of public health for the District of Columbia. Tuckson is a co-founder and board member of the Black Coalition Against COVID.

He says Black people and professionals were able to close major vaccine disparity gaps when the primary series was released. During that time, vaccines were administered at no-cost. Today, COVID-19 shots are available for free under insurance plans when the provider is in-network. For uninsured people, the federal governmentsBridge Access Programcovers the cost, but the program is set to end on December 31.

Tuckson also says combining recommendations may be helpful.

They decided to simplify things so that it just makes more sense for people to actually be able to implement the guidance. The context is that the flu season and the RSV season have now all become one with the COVID season, he told Word In Black in a phone interview.

The CDCs core respiratory illness prevention steps include:

Regarding isolation time, the Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends that people with symptoms of a virus isolate at home until theyre fever-free without the use of medicine for 24 hours. Similarly, they recommend one isolate until any other symptoms improve within the same time period.

Some people find it concerning that the CDC is ending the official five-day isolation period for COVID-19 and allowing people to leave home before all of their symptoms are completely cleared up. Tuckson says the CDC still wants infected people to isolate if theyre sick.

You still want to be cautious. And I would recommend personally that if youre still feeling unwell, dont go to work, dont be around others, he says.

Mandy Cohen, director at the CDC, shared similar sentiments.

We still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory virusesthis includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick, Cohen said in a statement.

But The Peoples CDC, a coalition of public health practitioners, scientists, healthcare workers, educators, advocates and people from all walks of life working to reduce the harmful impacts of COVID-19, disagrees. In a March 4 op-ed published onReckon, the group wrote that the CDCs rollback of the 5-day isolation protocol ignores the dangers of long COVID, and that intra-office transmission of COVID-19, a result of already insufficient workplace protections, leads to repeated episodes of short staffing levels.

The coalition wrote that instead, we need mandated universal paid sick leave and funding for long COVID-19 prevention and treatments, among other population interventions. We do not need more people spreading COVID-19 at work.

According to the CDC, the updated guidelines are in response to a drop in hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19. Compared to January 2022, weekly hospital admissions have decreased by more than 75% and deaths by more than 90%, the agency reported.

In the first week of 2024, 35,097 people were hospitalized, the CDC COVID-19 tracker shows. Limited federal data is available on the number of people who die from the virus-19. According to data collection by BNO News, 1,652 Americans died in the week between February 25 and March 3.

In addition to rates of poor health outcomes related to COVID-19, the CDCs new guidance considered the cost of extended isolation, which included the fact that people with limited sick time may experience a financial loss.

The bottom line is that when people follow these actionable recommendations to avoid getting sick, and to protect themselves and others if they do get sick, it will help limit the spread of respiratory viruses, and that will mean fewer people who experience severe illness, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a statement.

The CDC also recommends that people get vaccinated and utilize testing. Shortly after the agency announced its new guidance, the White House announced an end to its free at-home COVID-19 test program. In the past, every household could order four tests by visiting COVIDtest.gov. As of Friday, March 8, that option will be suspended.

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What Do The New COVID-19 Guidelines Mean For Your Health? - Seattle Medium

In a recent study published in Frontiers, researchers investigated the transmission- and immunoglobulin G (IgG) viral neutralization potential of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) booster vaccine products (antibodies) passed from mother to offspring through breastmilk.

They evaluated the IgG concentrations of milk, plasma, and stool samples from 24 infants and 34 vaccinated mothers, 14 of whom received COVID-19 booster doses during the study.

Study:COVID-19 booster enhances IgG mediated viral neutralization by human milkin vitro. Image Credit:BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock.com

Study findings reveal that booster vaccination substantially increased IgG levels in mothers' milk and infants' stool samples compared to unvaccinated participants.

In vitro neutralization experiments using a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-like pseudovirus shows a 60% increase in the viral neutralization efficacy following the COVID-19 booster, highlighting the potential of booster dosed breastmilk to augment the otherwise poor immunity of infants against this terrible disease.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the most disease outbreaks in human history, claiming almost 7 million lives and leaving hundreds of millions more debilitated since its discovery in late 2019.

While the rapid global development and administration of anti-COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced disease impacts, infants present a vulnerable cohort because they are too young for conventional vaccinations, compounded by their underdeveloped immune systems.

Maternal vaccination during breastfeeding has been shown to effectively confer their infants protection against a number of viral diseases, with the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending the intervention against whooping cough, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and most recently, COVID-19 (albeit with hitherto limited to no evidence backing the latter).

Previous work by the present research group established the presence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA antibodies in human breastmilk and infant fecal matter, with Halasa and colleagues validating the benefits of maternal COVID-19 vaccination in infant immunity shortly after in 2022.

Unfortunately, subsequent studies revealed this immunity to be short-lived, with evidence suggesting substantial antibody concentration declines six months following vaccination.

While mRNA booster vaccine doses have proved instrumental in maintaining adult immunity against the pandemic, the transmission and viral neutralization efficacy of booster-derived, breastmilk-transmitted anti-COVID-19 antibodies remains unknown.

The present study aims to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers in the milk and plasma of mother (following booster vaccine reception) and the stools of their infants.

They further use in vitro viral neutralization assays to elucidate the efficacy of these antibodies in eradicating VSV-gfp-SARS-CoV-2-S-gp, a SARS-CoV-2-like pseudovirus. The study was conducted at the University of Florida between December 2020 and May 2022.

It comprised 39 breastfeeding mothers and 25 infants, 34 and 24 of whom were included in the final analyses (due to lack of complete data for missing participants).

Study data included maternal/infant demographics, family and medical histories, and vaccination side-effects, collected via participant-completed questionnaires.

Additionally, blood (for plasma), milk, and stool samples were collected during enrolment and at each of the seven follow-up sessions included in the study design.

Of the included cohort, 14 mothers received a mRNA booster dose and comprised the cases against which the non-booster vaccine-receiving controls were compared.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used to measure IgA and IgG titers in plasma, milk, and fecal samples.

A SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein-expressing Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV-gfp-SARS-CoV-2-S-gp) alongside infection-competent human ACE2 receptor expressing Baby Hamster Kidney fibroblasts (BHK cells) were used for in vitro neutralization assays.

The MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay was used to measure antibody neutralization efficacy. Modified plaque reduction assays were conducted to confirm MTT results.

Demographic data analyses revealed that most of the 34 mothers and 14 included infants were non-Hispanic White women (mean age mid-30s and 10 months, respectively).

Booster vaccine doses were observed to substantially increase IgG concentrations in milk, plasma, and blood samples.

While IgA levels were also shown to persist above pre-vaccination levels following booster administration, these increases were found to be more subdued. These findings were mirrored when evaluating infants' stool samples' immunoglobulin titers.

"Throughout the 12-month period, we observed a less dynamic response in IgA levels in both human milk and plasma. The booster primarily triggered a rise in IgG levels, indicating a shift in the immune response toward a stronger IgG-mediated protection against SARS-CoV-2."

Spearman correlations further present that the concentrations of IgG in milk and plasma are correlated, suggesting that one may be used as a proxy for the other in situations wherein specific blood or milk samples are unavailable for analysis.

These findings also highlight a time-dependent IgG titer response, with IgG concentrations progressively declining on advancing duration following booster reception.

Most notably, in vitro neutralization assays found significant increases in milk- and plasma-derived IgG neutralization efficacy, with estimated 60% and 90% improvements, respectively.

Validating these results using milk IgG depletion experiments showed that milk samples' viral neutralization efficacy significantly declined following IgG depletion.

" Our results, from both the plaque reduction assay and MTT, show that cell survival and cellular activity is protected and preserved in cells treated with boosted plasma or milk during in vitro VSV-gfp-SARS-CoV-2-S-gp infection."

The present study corroborates previous research highlighting the benefits of maternal vaccinations in reducing COVID-19 infection risk in breastfeeding infants.

Most notably, it highlights the potential of anti-COVID-19 booster doses to more than offset time-dependent IgG efficacy declines, evident through the boosters' impacts on plasma, milk, and infant stool IgG titers.

"Although future studies are necessary to fully elucidate the specific mechanisms whereby luminal IgG confers infant protection, these works highlight the protective role of maternal milk-derived IgG. Our current studies add to the existing body of literature, further underscoring the importance of human milk-derived IgA and IgG in promoting infant health."

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COVID-19 booster enhances virus neutralizing antibodies in breast milk, new study reveals - News-Medical.Net

Researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have in a study published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia on March 6, shared key insights into the effectiveness of Covishield and Covaxin the two most used COVID-19 vaccines in India, the Hindustan Times reported.

The study, titled 'Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines BBV152 (COVAXIN) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (COVISHIELD) in seronegative and seropositive individuals in India: a multicentre, non-randomized observational study', compared the immune responses in users for Covishield v Covaxin, it added.

The study involved collaboration between 11 institutes, including at least six from Pune. These six included the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER), the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), and the Pune Knowledge Cluster.

Covishield was AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine produced and branded locally by the Adar Poonawalla-led Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, while Covaxin was developed and produced by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

1. Covishield's Robust Immune Responses: The comprehensive study, conducted from June 2021 to January 2022 and encompassing 691 participants aged 18 to 45 from Bangalore and Pune, found that Covishield, which employs a virus vector for spike protein delivery, consistently showed more robust immune responses than Covaxin, an inactivated virus vaccine.

2. Differential Immune Responses: The majority of participants exhibited a near-complete immune response to Covishield, while the response to Covaxin varied, particularly among those vaccinated before the emergence of the Omicron variant.

3. Antibody Levels and T Cells: Covishield induced higher antibody levels in both seronegative (individuals without prior exposure) and seropositive (individuals with prior exposure) subjects, suggesting a more potent and enduring immune response. Additionally, Covishield triggered a higher number of T cells compared to Covaxin, indicating a stronger overall immune response.

4. Protection Against Variants: Covishield consistently demonstrated higher antibody levels against various virus strains, suggesting its potential superior protection against variants such as Omicron.

Follow-up studies on vaccine immunology and the analysis of immune protection factors were lacking and theres a scarcity of comparative studies on these two vaccines. This is one of the very few studies that not only investigates the immune responses of participants after vaccination but also considers their immune history prior to vaccination," said Dr Mangaiarkarasi Asokan, former programme head, of VISION, and lead author of the study.

"While there was a whole lot of talk going on about which vaccine performed better against the COVID-19 virus, for us in India, only two vaccines were available and the majority of citizens were vaccinated in a phase-wise manner," said Vineeta Bal, emeritus professor, Biology, IISER Pune on the overall significance of this research.

She added that before this study, there was no comparison data available about the performance and effectiveness of these vaccines. "Some people only had data on Covaxin while others had data on Covishield. For the first time, this study has given us the comparative data for both vaccines," she added.

Bal also added that they pioneered technology to conduct this study, which will "now be helpful for immunology assessment in future".

Professor LS Shashidhara, centre director, NCBS, called it a "first-of-its-kind population-level immunological study on vaccines" and noted that it is significant as the virus is "still spreading and evolving".

"Such studies need serum samples from diverse subjects representing genetic, geoclimatic and nutritional diversity and innovative study design and rigorous statistical methods. No one single organisation can undertake such a study. We are grateful to all our partners and indebted to Hindustan Unilever for its generous funding. Results of this study so far and additional research that we are pursuing will have major inputs for future vaccine strategies as a public health programme," he added.

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COVID-19 Vaccine: Covishield outperforms Covaxin in first-of-its-kind comparative study. Key things to know | Mint - Mint

EXCLUSIVE Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is standing firm behind his controversial decision not to force an isolation period for children not vaccinated against measles after an outbreak in his state in February, saying that erring on the side of individual choice should be a key lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic.

What honestly breaks my heart but I hope that people recognize is that, unfortunately, the same people who were ready to drive the car into the ground and take everyone down with them during COVID have learned no lessons, Ladapo said in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner.

Ladapo has drawn extensive public criticism after the outbreak of a cluster of six measles cases at Manatee Bay Elementary School in the Fort Lauderdale area.

On Feb. 20, Ladapo issued a statement to parents in the district, deferring to parents and guardians to make the decision about whether or not to send unvaccinated children to school.

Ladapos directive contradicts the general guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for measles outbreaks, which recommends that unvaccinated people remain isolated for up to 21 days following potential contact with a measles patient due to the likelihood of transmission and the possibility of the unvaccinated patient developing symptoms. In this case, Ladapo said the generic guidance seemed completely excessive.

Ladapo said that, given that 97% of the students at the school had received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, the decision to defer to parents was much more humane, much more practical, and much more sustainable.

In my judgment, thats a completely reasonable decision, considering the circumstances and considering what we know about the immunity rate in the community, the effectiveness of the vaccine, and the cost associated with isolation and keeping kids out of school for so long, Ladapo said.

Although the federal recommendation for isolation is 21 days, Ladapo noted that other countries have looser restrictions depending upon local conditions, including the inability of parents to provide child care for children other than public schools.

The World Health Organizations national-level guidance, which Ladapo cited in his interview with the Washington Examiner, says that pragmatic decisions often guide national policies, following a risk-benefit assessment.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who represents the Fort Lauderdale region in Congress, called for the removal of Ladapo from his post over his handling of the incident, saying that his policies are a stark contrast to bipartisan public health success.

Ladapo instead politicizes public health and peddles risky freedom of choice rhetoric that fuels vaccine hesitancy and downplays the public and personal health necessity for vaccination, Wasserman Schultz said in a press conference last week.

George Washington University public health professor and former Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen called Ladapos policies outrageous and a preventable tragedy in a Washington Post op-ed, saying that lockdown measures are sometimes essential to control a public health crisis.

In contrast to Ladapos policy, Wen praised the 2019 decision of New York Commissioner of Health Oxiris Barbot to force unvaccinated people to take the MMR vaccine or pay $1,000 during a measles outbreak. As draconian as these steps might have seemed, they were taken only because it was necessary [to] stop an extremely contagious and highly devastating disease from resurging, Wen said.

Ladapo told the Washington Examiner that he did not make his policy decision lightly, saying that containing an outbreak must be weighed with other political and policy goals, such as learning loss from school isolation.

Its absolutely a fact that measles is very contagious, but the idea that the only thing that matters is reducing the risk of contagion to as low as you possibly can, even if that involves taking draconian measures, that, unfortunately, is what we saw during the pandemic, Ladapo said.

As of the beginning of March, 41 measles cases had been reported in 15 states and New York City. Other countries have struggled recently with measles outbreaks, including Canada and the United Kingdom.

Measles is one of the most contagious known infectious diseases, with 9 in 10 people who do not have either vaccine or natural immunity likely to become infected after exposure.

Children under 5 are most susceptible to serious cases of measles, which can result in lifelong neurological damage, including loss of vision or hearing. One in every 20 children infected with measles can develop pneumonia, which is the leading cause of death from the disease.

The vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, is highly effective in preventing infection, with those who have at least one dose of the MMR vaccine obtaining 93% immunity, according to the CDC. Immunity against measles goes up to 97% with all three doses.

Following CDC and WHO recommendations, the Florida Department of Health provided information and literature to parents on the risks involved with measles infections and provided pop-up vaccination clinics in the school district to encourage vaccination.

Ladapo said that not many families chose to have their children vaccinated at the clinics, likely because they were more comfortable not receiving a measles vaccine, not changing their mind in terms of the decision they had already made about declining that particular vaccine.

According to the CDC, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the MMR vaccine, which was first developed in 1971, has very small risks of complications.

We allow [vaccine refusal] in Florida, which is a good thing, Ladapo said. We allow parents to make that decision about what they put in their kids bodies.

When asked about the growing problem of vaccine hesitancy worldwide, Ladapo said reasonable skepticism of public health recommendations is very sane and rational and wise in light of a lack of transparency from public health leaders, particularly the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.

Ladapo earned his joint MD/Ph.D. degree in health policy from Harvard University in 2008 with a research focus on behavioral economic strategies for cardiovascular disease prevention prior to being selected by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for surgeon general in September 2021.

Ladapo has frequently generated significant controversy by contradicting the CDC and other public health agencies and professional groups on COVID-19 epidemiology and policy.

In November 2020, Ladapo wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal advocating the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine even without randomized studies demonstrating efficacy. As surgeon general, Ladapo has called for a pause in the use of mRNA vaccine technology due to concerns about genetic material contamination.

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In Ladapos view, people who have grown skeptical of public health recommendations since the pandemic felt that they were being lied to or manipulated and that the information they were receiving and the recommendations they were receiving were not trustworthy.

Im sure [that] has contributed to more people questioning recommendations in general, including vaccination recommendations, Ladapo said.

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Florida surgeon general says controversial measles policy informed by lessons from COVID-19 - Washington Examiner

A German man deliberately got 213 COVID-19 vaccine shots in less than a year, becoming a walking experiment for what happens to the immune system when it is vaccinated repeatedly against the same pathogen.

A correspondence published Monday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases outlined his case and concluded that while his hypervaccination did not result in any adverse health effects, it also did not significantly improve his immune response.

The 62-year-old man from Magdeburg is not named in the correspondence in compliance with German privacy rules. Of the shots, 134 were confirmed by a prosecutor and through vaccination center documentation; the rest were self-reported.

According to his immunization history, the man got his first COVID vaccine in June 2021, then went on to get 16 more that year.

He ramped up his efforts in 2022, getting 48 shots in January and 34 in February.

Around that time, German Red Cross staff members in Dresden became suspicious and issued a warning to other vaccination centers, encouraging them to call the police if they saw the man, CNN affiliate RTL reported.

In March 2022, he was detained in a vaccination center in Eilenburg by police who suspected him of selling vaccination cards to third parties, according to RTL. The public prosecutor in Magdeburg opened an investigation but did not end up filing criminal charges, according to the study.

The researchers read about the man in the news and reached out to him in May 2022. He agreed to provide medical information, blood and saliva samples. By that point, he was 213 shots in; he later got four more, against the researchers medical advice, said Kilian Schober, senior author of the new study and a researcher at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nrnberg

This is a really unusual case of someone receiving that many COVID vaccines, clearly not following any type of guidelines, said Dr. Emily Happy Miller, an assistant professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who did not participate in the research.

The man did not report any vaccine-related side effects and has not had a COVID infection to date, as evidenced by repeated antigen and PCR testing between May 2022 and November 2023. The researchers caution that its not clear that his COVID status is directly because of his hypervaccination regimen.

Perhaps he didnt get COVID because he was well-protected in the first three doses of the vaccine, Miller said. We also dont know anything about his behaviors.

Schober said it is important to remember that this is an individual case study, and the results are not generalizable.

The researchers also say they do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance immunity.

The benefit is not much bigger if you get vaccinated three times or 200 times, Schober said.

The researchers analyzed his blood chemistry, which showed no abnormalities linked to his hypervaccination. They also looked at various markers to evaluate how his adaptive immune system was functioning, according to the study.

In total, the man got eight vaccine formulations, including mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, a vector-based vaccine from Johnson & Johnson and a recombinant-protein vaccine from Sanofi. He got them in both arms.

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A man deliberately got 213 COVID shots in less than a year. Here's what happened then. - OCRegister

Concern about the health threat posed by COVID-19 has reached a record low across the political spectrum, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

Twenty percent of all Americans in the survey said they think the virus is a “major threat” to “[t]he health of the U.S. population as a whole.” Twelve percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and 28 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the threat posed by the virus to their country was “major.”

The drop in concern about the health threat posed by the coronavirus, as measured by the survey, is drastically different from concern levels two years ago.

In May 2022, 41 percent of Americans said they thought that the COVID-19 pandemic was a “major threat” to “[t]he health of the U.S. population as a whole.” In the same year, 57 percent of surveyed Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 20 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the virus posed a “major threat” to the health of their country, according to Pew.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently stopped recommending that Americans not go to work or school for five days following testing positive for COVID-19. It set forth new guidance recommending people stay home when sick — despite possibly not knowing what is causing their illness — and go back to their regular routine if they feel better and don’t have a fever for at least 24 hours with no medication.

“However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses — this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in a statement.

The Pew survey was conducted between Feb. 7-11 and had an overall sample size of 10,133 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. 

The sample size for the question on the threat posed by the coronavirus to the U.S. “as a whole” was 5,050 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The sample size of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was 4,954 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The sample size of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents was 5,227 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. 

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Concern about COVID reaches record low across political spectrum: Survey - The Hill

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Vaccines are a critical public health strategy. They prime the immune system against potentially harmful pathogens and save millions of lives every year.

But can you have too much of a good thing?

Scientists at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) had the rare opportunity to explore this question in the context of immunization after a 62-year-old male from Magdeburg claimed to have received 217 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 over 29 months.

There is official evidence for 134 of the vaccinations, which include eight different types of vaccines authorized for human use. The remaining are self-reported.

We learned about his case via newspaper articles, said lead study author Privatdozent Dr. Kilian Schober, a group leader in the Institute for Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at FAU.

The public prosecutor of Magdeburg had opened up a case against the gentleman with allegations of fraud, but charges were never filed.

We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen. He was very interested in doing so, Schober said.

The research team wanted to explore the consequences of hypervaccination, which they suspected would have caused the mans immune cells to fatigue. Their analysis is published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The individual has undergone various blood tests over recent years, Schober described. He gave us his permission to assess the results of these analyses.

Some of the samples had been frozen, while others were obtained by the researchers during the current study after the gentleman insisted that he had received an additional vaccine.

We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination, said Schober. The researchers used a reference cohort, including 29 vaccinees (55% female, 45% male) that had received a 3-dose mRNA regimen, as a control group.

To the researchers surprise, the mans immune system is fully functional.

He has a large number of T effector cells against SARS-CoV-2 even more than observed in the control group. These cells did not show any signs of fatigue and were just as effective as cells obtained from the control group.

When Schober and team analyzed the number of memory T cells a type of immune cell that quickly increases in number upon re-exposure to an antigen the man had, they found this number was just as high as the control group. His immune cells were also effective against other pathogens.

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Collectively, it seems that hypervaccination has not damaged this mans immune system. Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary, said Katharina Kocher, a doctoral researcher and one of the studys lead authors.

Our test case was vaccinated with a total of eight different vaccines, including different available mRNA vaccines, said Schober. The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability.

As this is a case study, the generalizability of the findings is not clear. Regardless, the scientists explicitly stated that they do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity.

Reference: Kocher K, Moosmann C, Drost F, et al. Adaptive immune responses are larger and functionally preserved in a hypervaccinated individual. Lancet Infect Dis. 2024. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00134-8

This article is a rework of a press release issued bythe University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Material has been edited for length and content.

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German Man Who Received 217 COVID Vaccines Has Functioning Immune System - Technology Networks

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R.I. COVID-19 cases increased by 261 last week, with 2 deaths - Providence Business News

Many people whove gotten sick with COVID-19 have reported lingering symptoms of brain fog, including trouble with memory, concentration, and attention.

[1]

In this observational study, we found objectively measurable cognitive deficits that may persist for a year or more after COVID-19, wroteAdam Hampshire, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist and a professor with the faculty of medicine in the department of brain sciences at Imperial College London, and his collaborators.

For those with long COVID defined by study investigators as symptoms that last more than 12 weeks after a positive test the IQ drop on average was equal to 6 points. People who ended up in an intensive care unit because of COVID-19 infection showed a 9-point drop in IQ.

Reinfection contributed an additional loss of nearly 2 IQ points, as compared with no reinfection, according to the findings.

A small cognitive advantage was noted among those who had received two or more vaccinations. Also, the scientists observed smaller cognitive deficits among individuals who had been infected during recent variant periods as opposed to those who had been infected with the original virus.

The analysis was based on responses from nearly 113,000 adults age 18 and older who completed an online cognitive assessment. Results from the cognitive testing were translated to an IQ scale. About 60 percent were female and 95 percent were white.

Just over 46,000 reported never having COVID, and about the same number said they had been infected but symptoms had lasted less than four weeks. About 3,200 had symptoms continuing between 4 and 12 weeks, and around 3,600 experienced effects longer than 12 weeks.

[2]

For example, what are the functional implications of a 3-point loss in IQ? wrote Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, andClifford Rosen, MD, a professor of medicine at Tufts University in Boston. Whether one group of persons is affected more severely than others is not clear. Whether these cognitive deficits persist or resolve along with predictors and trajectory of recovery should be investigated.

[3]

This research confirms a very large number of studies showing that long COVID is associated with cognitive problems, says Igor Koralnik, MD,the chief of neuro-infectious disease in the department of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

[4]

[5]

Dr. Koralnik, who was not involved in the research, noted that the results in this analysis were limited because they were based on responses to an internet survey. Also, the study was observational in design, so it could only show an association and not establish that COVID was the cause of lower IQ scores.

The implications of longer-term persistence of cognitive deficits and their clinical relevance remain unclear and warrant ongoing surveillance, concluded the study authors.

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COVID-19 Brain Fog Is Lowering IQ Scores - Everyday Health

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Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg (FAU) and Universittsklinikum Erlangen have examined a man who has received more than 200 vaccinations against COVID-19. They learned of his case via newspaper reports.

Until now, it has been unclear what effects hypervaccination such as this would have on the immune system. Some scientists were of the opinion that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens. This proved not to be the case in the individual in question: his immune system is fully functional.

Certain immune cells and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are even present in considerably higher concentrations than is the case with people who have only received three vaccinations. The results have been published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

More than 60 million people in Germany have been vaccinated against SARS-Coronavirus 2, the majority of them several times. The man who has now been examined by researchers at FAU claims to have received 217 vaccinations for private reasons. There is official confirmation for 134 of these vaccinations.

"We learned about his case via newspaper articles," explains Privatdozent Dr. Kilian Schober from the Institute of MicrobiologyClinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene (director Prof. Dr. Christian Bogdan). "We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen. He was very interested in doing so." Schober and his colleagues wanted to know what consequences hypervaccination such as this would have. How does it alter the immune response?

As a rule, vaccinations contain parts of the pathogen or a type of construction plan that the vaccinated person's cells can use to produce these pathogenic components themselves. Thanks to these antigens, the immune system learns to recognize the real pathogen in the event of a later infection. It can then react more rapidly and forcibly. But what happens if the body's immune system is exposed extremely often to a specific antigen?

"That may be the case in a chronic infection such as HIV or hepatitis B, that has regular flare-ups," explains Schober. "There is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances." This and other effects triggered by the cells becoming used to the antigens can weaken the immune system. The immune system is then no longer able to combat the pathogen so effectively.

The current study, which also involved researchers from Munich and Vienna, does not deliver any indication that this is the case, however. "The individual has undergone various blood tests over recent years," explains Schober.

"He gave us his permission to assess the results of these analyses. In some cases, samples had been frozen, and we were able to investigate these ourselves. We were also able to take blood samples ourselves when the man received a further vaccination during the study at his own insistence. We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination."

The results showed that the individual has large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2. These act as the body's own soldiers that fight against the virus. The test person even had more of these compared to the control group of people who had received three vaccinations. The researchers did not perceive any fatigue in these effector cells, they were similarly effective as those in the control group who had received the normal number of vaccinations.

Memory T cells are another aspect the researchers explored. These are cells at a preliminary stage, before effector cells. Similar to stem cells, these cells can replenish numbers of suitable effector cells. "The number of memory cells was just as high in our test case as in the control group," explains Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study.

"Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary." In addition, even the 217th vaccination that the man received during the study still had an effect: the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result.

Further tests indicated that there was no change to the immune system's effectiveness against other pathogens. It therefore appears to be the case that the hypervaccination has not damaged the immune system as such.

"Our test case was vaccinated with a total of eight different vaccines, including different available mRNA vaccines," states Dr. Kilian Schober. "The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability."

However, this is one individual case. The results are not sufficient for making far-reaching conclusions let alone recommendations for the general public. "Current research indicates that a three-dose vaccination, coupled with regular top-up vaccines for vulnerable groups, remains the favored approach. There is no indication that more vaccines are required."

More information: Katharina Kocher et al, Adaptive immune responses are larger and functionally preserved in a hypervaccinated individual, The Lancet Infectious Diseases (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00134-8

Journal information: Lancet Infectious Diseases

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Researchers investigate immune response of a man who received 217 COVID vaccinations - Medical Xpress