Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

The researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg (FAU) and Universittsklinikum Erlangen published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases study highlights the effects of hypervaccination on the immune system.

The man who received these vaccines for private reasons was noticed through newspaper reports and voluntarily underwent extensive testing to examine the effect of all the vaccines.

Despite initial concerns that his immune system would become less effective due to overexposure to antigens, the study revealed the opposite.

Contrary to what people may have thought, the mans immune system appeared fully functional, with certain immune cells and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 found in significantly higher concentrations than in individuals who had received only three vaccinations.

This study challenges the idea that repeated exposure to antigens could weaken the immune response. Dr Kilian Schober, from the Institute of Microbiology at FAU, explained that the study involved analysing tests during the study period.

The results showed many T-effector cells, which play a crucial role in fighting the virus, suggesting that the mans immune system remained strong and responsive.

The study found no fatigue in these effector cells, indicating they were just as effective as in individuals who had received the normal number of vaccinations.

Memory T cells, which are key in replenishing effector cells, were also productive, further strengthening the immune response.

The 217th vaccination that the man received during the study produced a significant increase in antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, highlighting the continued effectiveness of the vaccine despite the mans extensive vaccination history.

The person also examined the immune system response to other pathogens and found no noticeable change in effectiveness, suggesting that hypervaccination did not compromise overall immune function.

Dr. Schober emphasised that while the findings are encouraging, they are based on a single case and do not authenticate conclusions or recommendations. Current research supports the standard vaccination protocol, with three doses recommended for most individuals and additional booster shots for vulnerable groups.

The studys findings highlight the resilience of the immune system and the potential for vaccines to provide robust and long-lasting protection against COVID-19.

In conclusion, while the case of the man who received over 200 COVID vaccinations may be unique, it offers valuable insights into the complexities of the immune response.

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Hypervaccination: What would 217 COVID-19 vaccines do to your immune system? - Open Access Government

CARB-X today announced funding for its 100th project addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The $1.06 million award will help the Hemholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), of Saarbrucken, Germany, develop a new class of small-molecule inhibitors of bacterial sliding clamp, a pivotal component of DNA replication machinery that has not previously been targeted. The novel compounds have shown promising antibacterial activity against several pathogens that cause community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP).

Lower respiratory tract infections, including CABP, are estimated to have killed 2.6 million people globally in 2019, more than 400,000 of whom died from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

"With this 100thproject, we are doubling-down on our support of novel approaches to deliver antibiotics that clinicians and patients need," CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) R&D chief Erin Duffy, PhD, said in a press release. "If successful, the HIPS project will offer a workhorse antibiotic for community-acquired infections that will also take the pressure off antibiotics in the [World Health Organization] model list of essential medicines."

Since its founding in 2016, CARB-X has played a critical role in efforts to boost the pipeline for new antibacterials and other products targeting drug-resistant bacteria, awarding $452.6 million for early-stage development of vaccines, diagnostic, antibiotics, and other therapies. Eighteen of its 100 projects have made it into first-in-human trials, 12 remain in clinical development, and 2 diagnostics have reached the market.

"When CARB-X started in 2016, the antibacterial pre-clinical pipeline looked promising but vulnerable," said CARB-X Executive Director Kevin Outterson, JD. "Even the teams with the most impactful ideas lacked the capital and support needed to advance their R&D products towards patients. CARB-X stood in the gap, and, eight years later, we have clear proof that our model is working."

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Case report: 217 COVID vaccine doses haven't harmed man's immune system - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Diverse Stock Photos / Flickr cc

A new randomized control trial from the United Kingdom shows that using ivermectin during COVID-19 infections provided little improvement in recovery rates in patients treated in clinics. The study appeared in the Journal of Infection.

The anti-parasitic drug has been investigated since 2020 as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Some early trials suggested the drug was able to reduce mortality rates and improve outcomes, but several of them had serious flaws, the authors noted. Subsequent trials and systematic reviews have largely disproved those earlier results.

The present, open-arm study compared outcomes among 8,811 SARS-CoV-2positive participants (median symptom duration, 5 days), who were randomized to outpatient treatment with ivermectin (2,157), standard care (3,256), and other treatments (3,398) from June 23, 2021, to July 1, 2022. All participants were followed up for 28 days.

The observed median time to first recovery was 14 days in the ivermectin group and 15 in the usual-care group. The authors said this result was statistically significant (hazard ratio 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.23), but the estimated hazard ratio was less than the pre-specified meaningful effect of 1.2.

Ivermectin also did not reduce the number of hospitalizations. Use of the drug, however, was associated with a slight increase in the proportion of participants feeling fully recovered at 3, 6 and 12 months. At 6 months, 74% of respondents in the ivermectin group and 71% in the usual care group reported feeling fully recovered from the original COVID-19 illness (rate ratio 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.08).

Overall, these findings, while evidencing a small benefit in symptom duration, do not support the use of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19.

"Overall, these findings, while evidencing a small benefit in symptom duration, do not support the use of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19 in the community among a largely vaccinated population at the dose and duration we used," the authors wrote.

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Yet another study shows little benefit for ivermectin with COVID-19 - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

perfectly healthy and were able to verify that he had received at least 130 vaccines. getty

Scientists have studied the immune system of a man in Germany who claims to have received 217 Covid-19 vaccines.

The researchers were concerned that the man's immune system might have become exhausted with such frequent and numerous challenges with vaccines against the same virus, but they actually found the opposite.

Their analysis published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases found that not only did the man, 62, have a fully functional immune system, there were indicators that his immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19 was better than people who had just received a normal number of vaccines.

There is official evidence of the man having 134 Covid-19 vaccines of eight different types including mRNA vaccines over a nine-month period, although the man claims the amount to be 217 in total over 29 months.

It is not known why he chose to have so many vaccines. As of the last update in May 2023, the CDC Covid-19 vaccination dashboard indicated that 69.5% of Americans had completed at least the primary two-dose vaccination series. Since it stopped comprehensive tracking after this date, it is tricky to figure out how many vaccines is typical in the U.S. Many people have received additional bivalent vaccines, and individuals who are immunocompromised may have received more Covid-19 vaccines than typical healthy people. But the majority of people are unlikely to have had any more than five to six Covid-19 vaccines, making this man's sheer number of vaccines highly unusual.

Initially the public prosecutor in the city of Magdeburg, where the man lived, had opened a fraud investigation into him, but it never filed charges. The scientists found the man through newspaper reports and approached him to see whether he would be willing to be studied.

"We contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen. He was very interested in doing so, said Dr. Kilian Schober from the Institute of Microbiology at Germanys University Hospital of Erlangen, speaking in a press release about the work.

The man gave the researchers new blood and saliva samples as well as access to blood samples that had been taken after he received somebut not allof his vaccines. He also insisted on getting more vaccines after he had been in touch with the researchers and gave them blood samples after those, too.

"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," said Schober.

The man did not report any vaccine-related side effects to the research team. Even the 217th vaccination that the man received had an effect on his immune cells, with the researchers finding that the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result.

Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary," said Katharina Kocher, another researcher involved in the study.

The researchers also tested the man for evidence of a previous Covid-19 infection, finding none.

Although the hundreds of vaccinations the man received appear to have had no ill effects on him, the researchers stress in the paper that they do not recommend this approach.

"There are theoretical dangers with any medical intervention and possible side-effects are known for each vaccine type. The more often you get vaccinated, the more cumulative risks piles up to experience any such side effects," said Dr. Schober. "Apart from that, I see no specific danger with hypervaccination and based on our findings I have no concerns about long-term effects."

I am a postdoctoral research scientist focusing on childhood cancers and new, targeted cancer therapies. As a survivor of childhood leukemia myself, I am a determined advocate for research into better, less-toxic cancer treatments and how to reduce the long-term side effects of current drugs. I am an award-winning science communicator and have written for The Times, The Guardian and various cancer-focused outlets. I am also a 2017 TED Fellow, having done my TED talk on cancer survivorship and I regularly do public talks on topics ranging from Why havent we cured cancer yet? to Cannabis and cancer; hype or hope?. I am passionate about using social media to communicate science and frequently share pictures and stories from my own laboratory work in real-time on my Twitter account @vickyyyf, alongside commentary about important research breakthroughs. You can find out more about me and how to get in contact via my website drvickyforster.com. All of my articles reflect my personal views and not those of my employer.

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Man Receives Hundreds Of Covid-19 Vaccines - Forbes

Or is it becoming an endemic disease? A BU virologist, epidemiologist, and physician reflect on the status of the virus as the CDC cuts isolation period to 24 hours Is COVID-19 Still a Pandemic?

Or is it becoming an endemic disease? A BU virologist, epidemiologist, and physician reflect on the status of the virus as the CDC cuts isolation period to 24 hours

Can we finally throw away the masks? Three BU experts share their perspectives on the shifting status of COVID-19. Photo via iStock/ArtMarie

First it was 14 days, then 10 days, to 7 days, then down to 5 daysthe time were supposed to isolate after testing positive for COVID-19 has changed drastically since the start of the pandemic. And now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has cut it to 24 hours, after a person is fever-free and symptoms are improving.

All of these changes, plus the widespread relaxation of mask policies in public places, begs the question: Are we still in a pandemic? Or has COVID-19 reached the endemic stage, meaning its here to stay, but not spreading out of control? The terminology can be confusingfor example, the World Health Organization still calls COVID-19 a pandemic, even after declaring an end to the public health emergency last spring.

The Brink asked three Boston University researchersa virologist, an epidemiologist, and an emergency room physicianto explain the shifting status of COVID, how to decide when a virus has gone from a pandemic to endemic, how much people should protect themselves and others, and why language matters. Here are their expert takes, in their own words:

It might be helpful to refer to definitions. A pandemic is defined as a widespread disease outbreak that causes disruption on a global scale. This could be contrasted with the definition for endemic, which is, the constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within a given geographic area or population group.

It is difficult to identify a shift from pandemic to endemic in real time. The assessment is often made when looking back in time and reassessing the situation. What we can say about the current situation is that we are no longer in a phase where society is experiencing widespread disruptions because of the virus. As an infectious diseases physician, I am not seeing large numbers of individuals presenting with severe disease and needing to be hospitalized. This is because of population-level immunity from either vaccination or prior infection. We also have antivirals, such as Paxlovid, which help with preventing the need to be hospitalized.

Although we often like to focus on classifications, such as epidemic/pandemic versus endemic, endemicity does not mean that a condition is benign or without consequences. For example, malaria is endemic to Africa and it kills nearly half a million people every year. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, in 2023, scientists estimated that there was a 20 percent chance over the next two years that we might see another Omicron-like wave. Therefore, we need to remain vigilant. It is important that the nation maintains a robust surveillance system, so that we could quickly identify and address any future variants. In addition, approximately 2,000 people are dying every week from COVID in the US and we are continuing to learn more about long COVID and its consequences. Although we are in a different phase, there are still reasons to remain vigilant.

Being up-to-date with vaccination should be the first line of defense. Vaccination not only decreases the risk of severe disease, but it also prevents long COVID. Recent data show that being boosted also makes a difference. Individuals who are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 should also consider using additional measures to protect themselves, such as limiting time in crowds and wearing a high-quality mask in poorly ventilated indoor settings. Improving indoor air quality with ventilation and filtration decreases the risk of transmission. Testing and antivirals are also helpful. We have learned a lot over the past several years and it is time to use all those lessons to protect everyone in the community.

COVID remains a major cause of illness and death worldwide. Is it still a pandemic? There are two things to consider in answering this question. First, how widespread does a disease need to be for us to call it a pandemic? The original SARS cases in 2003 met the definition of a pandemic because the virus spread in Asia and in North America, but the size of this pandemic was much smaller. COVID-19 has caused almost 800 million cases of disease worldwide since January 2020, and over 7 million deaths. Thats 100,000 times as many cases as SARS in 2003, and 10,000 times as many deaths; in fact, these numbers are likely underestimated. Right now, COVID cases are still happening widely. In December 2023, the WHO reported 1.2 million COVID cases and 9,575 deaths worldwide. Viewed this way, COVID is definitely still a pandemic.

The answer to our question also relies on how many cases of the disease we normally expect. And this is where governments have flexibility in deciding whether we are in a pandemic. In January 2020, less than 100 cases had ever been reported anywhere. By January 2021, there were 5 million cases per week; in January 2022 and 2023, there were over 20 million cases per week. How many cases we have today in January 2024 is less clearthe end of the emergency has led to a dramatic reduction in testing. The CDC still reports COVID hospitalizations, and, in the week of January 6, 2024, there were about 35,000 hospitalizations due to COVID across the US. By comparison, there were 44,000 hospitalizations at the same time in 2023. These numbers are not very different.

But are these numbers higher than expected or is this just our new normal? The answer to that question is the key to whether we call COVID a pandemic or not. The WHO has ended their public health emergency for COVID, but they still call COVID a pandemic. This reflects their perspective that millions of cases of a relatively new disease every week around the world is not a scenario we should just accept as normal.

All pandemics end eventually. Some, like SARS, end with the rapid elimination of disease. Others, like the plague, end with the disease finally fading into obscurity. Still others, like the 1918 influenza pandemic, see the disease growing milder without disappearing. And some, like smallpox, continue to cause high levels of illness, death, and disability, until we all agree that enough is enough and take action.

With nearly as many hospitalizations in January 2024 as in January 2023, its clear that COVID is not growing milder and its not fading away. The real question, then, is not whether COVID is still a pandemic, but how much COVID illness and death are we willing to accept?

I think the language we use is very important. As a virologist, I use the word pandemic to describe an infectious disease that erupts quickly and puts unexpected pressure on our healthcare system. This is absolutely what we experienced when SARS-CoV-2 spread across the globe in 2020. The emergence was unexpected and there was massive pressure on our healthcare system. The newness of the virus stoked uncertainty and fear. That was then. Now, infection with SARS-CoV-2 is not novel. There is not an unexpected pressure on the healthcare system because of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Infection is still happening all the time. That marks it as endemic. The shift from pandemic to endemic is really marked by time and prevalence. The first SARS-CoV [virus] appeared in 2003 and now has not been seen for decades, so it was a pandemic, but never became endemic. SARS-CoV-2 seems like it is here to stay, right now. That makes it endemic.

I think that people should act the same way they act when trying not to spread flu or other respiratory diseases. If you are really sick, stay away from others. If you know you are sick but not highly symptomatic, distance and masking are polite and helpful. If you know you are going to be around strongly immunocompromised people, being extra careful is a kind thing to do.

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Is COVID-19 Still a Pandemic? | The Brink - Boston University

One German man has redefined man on a mission. A 62-year-old from Magdeburg deliberately got 217 COVID-19 vaccine shots in the span of 29 months, according to a new study, going against national vaccine recommendations. Thats an average of one jab every four days.

In the process, he became a walking experiment for what happens to the immune system when it is vaccinated against the same pathogen repeatedly. Acorrespondencepublished 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 or worsen his immune response.

The man, who is not named in the correspondencein compliance with German privacy rules, reported receiving 217 COVID shots between June 2021 and November 2023. Of those, 134 were confirmed by a prosecutor and through vaccination centre documentation; the remaining 83 were self-reported, according to the study.

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 behaviours.

Dr. Kilian Schober, senior author of the new study and a researcher at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nrnberg, 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.

According to his immunization history, the man got his first COVID vaccine in June 2021. He got 16 shots that year at centres across the eastern state of Saxony.

He ramped up his efforts in 2022, rolling up his sleeves for shots in both his right and left arms almost every day in January, for a total of 48 shots that month.

Then he kept going: 34 shots in February and six more shots in March. Around this time, German Red Cross staff members in the city of Dresden became suspicious and issued a warning to other vaccination centres, encouraging them to call the police if they saw the man again, CNN affiliate RTLreportedin April 2022.

In early March, he showed up at a vaccination centre in the town of Eilenburg and was detained by police. He was suspected of selling the vaccination cards to third parties, according to RTL. This was during a time when many European countries requiredproof of vaccinationto access public venues and travel.

The public prosecutor in Magdeburg opened an investigation into the man for the unauthorized issuing of vaccination cards and forgery of documents 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 through the prosecutor investigating his case in May 2022. By this point, he was 213 shots in.

He agreed to provide medical information, blood and saliva samples. He also proceeded to get four more COVID shots, against the researchers medical advice, Schober said.

The researchers analyzed his blood chemistries, 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.

The adaptive immune system is the subsection of the immune system that learns to recognize and respond to specific pathogens when you encounter them throughout your life, Miller said. There are two main cell types in the adaptive immune system, T cells and B cells.

In chronic diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis B, immune cells can become fatigued from frequent exposure to the pathogen and lose the ability to combat it effectively, Schober said. Hypervaccination, in theory, could have a similar effect.

However, thats not what the researchers found. Hypervaccination in this case increased the quantity (the number of T cells and B cell products) but did not affect the quality of the adaptive immune system, according to the study.

If you take the allegory of the immune system as an army, the number of soldiers is higher, but the soldiers themselves are not different, Schober said.

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.

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, Schober said in anews release.

While very interesting from a scientific perspective, individual case studies like this must always be taken with a grain of salt, Miller said. Public health recommendations, which are based on very large, randomized control trials, are what people should look to for guidance, she added.

I dont think any physician or public health official would recommend doing what this gentleman did. This is really uncharted territory, Miller said. Talk to your doctor, follow the recommended vaccine schedules, and that should be the best thing to keep you both protected from COVID and healthy and safe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends COVID vaccination for everyone ages 6 months or older in the United States, following the vaccination schedules outlined on itswebsite. Last week, the CDCupdated its guidanceto recommend an additional dose of the current COVID vaccine for people 65 and older.

Less than a quarter of adults and only 13% of children in the U.S. have gotten the most recently recommended COVID vaccine, according toCDC data.

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COVID-19 vaccine: German man gets hundreds of shots - CTV News

Diverse Stock Photos / Flickr cc

A new randomized control trial from the United Kingdom shows that using ivermectin during COVID-19 infections provided little improvement in recovery rates in patients treated in clinics. The study appeared in the Journal of Infection.

The anti-parasitic drug has been investigated since 2020 as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Some early trials suggested the drug was able to reduce mortality rates and improve outcomes, but several of them had serious flaws, the authors noted. Subsequent trials and systematic reviews have largely disproved those earlier results.

The present, open-arm study compared outcomes among 8,811 SARS-CoV-2positive participants (median symptom duration, 5 days), who were randomized to outpatient treatment with ivermectin (2,157), standard care (3,256), and other treatments (3,398) from June 23, 2021, to July 1, 2022. All participants were followed up for 28 days.

The observed median time to first recovery was 14 days in the ivermectin group and 15 in the usual-care group. The authors said this result was statistically significant (hazard ratio 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.23), but the estimated hazard ratio was less than the pre-specified meaningful effect of 1.2.

Ivermectin also did not reduce the number of hospitalizations. Use of the drug, however, was associated with a slight increase in the proportion of participants feeling fully recovered at 3, 6 and 12 months. At 6 months, 74% of respondents in the ivermectin group and 71% in the usual care group reported feeling fully recovered from the original COVID-19 illness (rate ratio 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.08).

Overall, these findings, while evidencing a small benefit in symptom duration, do not support the use of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19.

"Overall, these findings, while evidencing a small benefit in symptom duration, do not support the use of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19 in the community among a largely vaccinated population at the dose and duration we used," the authors wrote.

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BA.2.87.1 COVID variant detected in Southeast Asia - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Astudy on 93 million individualsworldwide who received one of the major COVID-19 vaccines confirmed existing knowledge about the safety profile of these vaccines. Adverse events of special interest were rare and occurred at rates significantly lower than among individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as documented by prior studies.

For example, 36 million doses of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine resulted in an approximate excess of 430 cases of myocarditis above the 105 expected (as derived from analysis of Figure 3 of the study). That is roughly 12 excess cases of myocarditis for every 1 million doses administered in a 42-day window post-vaccination.

By contrast, aprior studyfound an excess of 40 myocarditis cases per million SARS-CoV-2 infections in a 28-day window after a positive test, a rate 3.3 times higherin a shorter windowthan what the study observed for the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine.

Notably, myocarditis with two doses of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine was the second highest effect size overalland the highest that could be reported with confidencefound by the study. All other adverse events of special interest occurred at far lower rates.

The researchers studied data from the Global COVID Vaccine Safety Project, an effort overseen by the multi-national Global Vaccine Data Network. The data were from 10 sites in eight countries in Europe, South America, Oceania and North America.

The study looked at the three most commonly administered vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273 and Oxford/Astra Zeneca/Serum Institute of India ChAdOx1. The latter vaccine was withdrawn from multiple national vaccination programs in 2021 in response to an increased occurrence of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, a finding confirmed by this study.

There were 99 million individuals who received over 242 million vaccine doses included in the analysis. The researchers used a 42-day window after vaccination to look for adverse events of special interest, resulting in over 23 million person years of follow-up in total. These extraordinary numbers lent an unprecedented power to detect rare events and provided narrow confidence intervals for all but the rarest events.

Due to its size, the study had the power to uncover previously undetected adverse events of special interest. The only potential such event was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis due to the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, but the excess number of cases was a miniscule five. The resulting confidence interval was therefore wide, and thus the results must be interpreted with caution. The researchers plan to analyze this event further in the Global COVID Vaccine Safety Data Project.

The SEP launches its campaign for a socialist alternative in 2024 to Biden and Trump, the corporate candidates of war and dictatorship!

David North, the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US) announced today the selection of Joe Kishore and Jerry White as its candidates in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

The study primarily reported its results as observed to expected event ratios, or OE ratios. It estimated expected event numbers using pre-COVID data from 2015 to 2019, with the exception of Denmark, for which the study used data from 2019-2020. It compared these expected event numbers with the numbers observed in the Global COVID Vaccine Safety Project, computing 95 percent confidence intervals on each OE ratio.

The fact that the results are reported as OE ratios can sometimes be misleading. The fact that two doses of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine had on OE ratio of 6.1 for myocarditis might lead one to overestimate their personal risk. Although a risk of myocarditis six times higher than baseline sounds high, the extremely low expected rate of myocarditis multiplied by six is still extremely low. For the over 12 million people who received exactly two doses, there were merely approximately 266 excess cases, or an incidence rate of 0.000022.

Besides myocarditis, the statistically significant safety signal adverse events varied by vaccine. For the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine, the only safety signal was myocarditis.

For the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, the safety signals were myocarditis, pericarditis, and the acute disseminated encephalomyelitis mentioned previously (with just five excess events). The OE ratios for these events varied by number of doses given.

For the Oxford/Astra Zeneca/Serum Institute of India ChAdOx1vaccine, the safety signals were Guillain-Barre syndrome, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and pericarditis. The latter, as with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis with the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, occurred only with three doses and was too rare to give confidence in the results.

As the researchers note, their results are consistent with prior studies. All COVID-19 vaccines have undergone a high level of scrutiny, which has shown repeatedly that the vaccines are safe.

This study once again refutes anti-vaccination disinformation, most often but not entirely promulgated by the far-right. One study onvaccine misinformation on social mediafound that the most common theme was safety concerns.

Given the strength of the study and the fact that it cuts to the core of anti-vaccination messaging, the only responses possible were either ignoring the study or grossly misrepresenting it. Most of the notorious anti-vaccination personalities largely ignored it.

The top six of the Disinformation Dozen ignored the study. A2021 reportby the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that this group of 12 personalities was responsible for approximately 65 percent of online vaccine disinformation.

Mehring Books

COVID, Capitalism, and Class War: A Social and Political Chronology of the Pandemic

A compilation of the World Socialist Web Site's coverage of this global crisis, available in epub and print formats.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., number two of the Disinformation Dozen, made no reference to the study on X/Twitter. However, at least one member of the Disinformation Dozen, Erin Elizabeth, took the other tack andmisrepresented the findingsentirely, saying the findings affirmed safety concerns promulgated by anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns, when they clearly do nothing of the sort.

Additionally, apiece in the Daily MirrorSri Lankamisrepresented the studys findings, claiming falsely that it validated skeptics vaccine safety concerns. The piece also quotes Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, the immediate past president of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), as saying scientific principles were abandoned during the pandemic in relationship to the vaccines. This is another lie commonly peddled by the anti-vaccine movement.

The working class must base its program on scientific evidence, which makes abundantly clear that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at reducing ones risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death, and appear to reduce ones risk of developing Long COVID. They must be freely available to the entire global population to provide this protection, and not distributed based on the private profit interests of the pharmaceutical monopolies.

However, while the vaccines still provide a certain level of protection, the complete abandonment of all public health measures by every capitalist government has enabled SARS-CoV-2 to undergo rapid viral evolution, rendering existing vaccines increasingly ineffective at preventing infection. As a result, the danger looms over society that a far more deadly and immune-evasive variant could evolve, rendering existing vaccines worthless.

It is critical that massive resources be invested in next-generation nasal, mucosal and pan-coronavirus vaccines, which could potentially provide sterilizing immunity against all future variants as well as other types of coronaviruses that threaten to spill over into human society.

The capitalist response to the pandemic has laid bare that a society controlled by a tiny layer of financial oligarchs, whose bought-and-paid-for politicians subordinate public health to private profit along nationalist lines, is wholly incapable of advancing such scientific endeavors or public health more broadly.

Only a socialist public health program aimed at eliminating COVID-19 and other pathogens globally through the use of masks, mass testing, indoor air purification, vaccines, the proper application of social distancing measures, and other public health measures, can put an end to the ongoing needless suffering and death of the global population.

The international working class, armed with a socialist program and in alliance with the most advanced scientists, is the only social force capable of carrying out the necessary reorganization of the global economy to both stop the COVID-19 pandemic and protect humanity from future pandemics.

Join the fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic

Someone from the Socialist Equality Party or the WSWS in your region will contact you promptly.

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Massive study confirms safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines - WSWS

NEW YORK (AP) Americans who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to stay in isolation for five days, U.S. health officials announced Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its longstanding guidance, saying that people can return to work or regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and its been a day since theyve had a fever.

The change comes at a time when COVID-19 is no longer the public health menace it once was. It dropped from being the nations third leading cause of death early in the pandemic to 10th last year.

Most people have some degree of immunity to the coronavirus from vaccinations or from infections. And many people are not following the five-day isolation guidance anyway, some experts say.

Our goal here is to continue to protect those at risk for severe illness while also reassuring folks that these recommendation are simple, clear, easy to understand, and can be followed, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDCs director,

However, some experts worry that the change may increase the risk of infection for older people and others who are more vulnerable to getting seriously ill.

COVID-19 is not causing as many hospitalizations and deaths as it did in the first years of the pandemic. The change is an effort to streamline recommendations so they are similar to longstanding recommendations for flu and other respiratory viruses. Many people with a runny nose, cough or other symptoms arent testing to distinguish whether its COVID-19, flu, or something else, officials say.

It may not be as stringent, but the guidance emphasizes that all people with respiratory symptoms should stay home while they are sick, said Dr. David Margolius, the head of Clevelands health department.

People are likely still contagious when they test positive, and that hasnt changed, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown Universitys School of Public Health.

What has changed is how much COVID is harming us as a population, Nuzzo said.

Officials noted that some other countries and California and Oregon have eased isolation guidance in a manner similar to CDCs latest change and did not see an increase in cases.

If you have symptoms, stay home until your symptoms are mild and improving and its been a day since youve had a fever. But then you can remain cautious by wearing a mask and keeping a distance from others.

However, the CDC guidance for workers at nursing homes and other health care facilities is staying the same. That includes a recommendation that medical personnel stay home at least seven days after symptoms first appear, and that they test negative within two days of returning to work.

The agency is emphasizing that everyone should still try to prevent infections in the first place, by getting vaccinated, washing their hands, and taking steps to bring in more outdoor fresh air.

Yes, and even some who understand the rationale for the change have concerns.

My biggest worry in all of this is that employers will take this change in guidance to require employees to come back to work ... before they are ready to, before they feel well enough, and before they are not likely to pose harm to their co-workers, Nuzzo said.

COVID-19 remains especially dangerous to older people and those with other medical conditions. There are still more than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 2,000 deaths each week due to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. Those 65 and older have the highest hospitalization and death rates.

This week, the CDC said seniors should get another dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Not necessarily. Schools and child care providers have a mixed record on following CDC recommendations and often look to local authorities for the ultimate word. And sometimes other goals, such as reducing absences, can influence a state or districts decisions.

When California eased its guidance, it encouraged kids to come to school when mildly sick. It also said students who test positive for COVID-19 but dont have any symptoms can attend school.

No. The CDC originally advised 10 days of isolation, but in late 2021 cut it to five days for Americans who catch the coronavirus and have no symptoms or only brief illnesses. Under that guidance for the general public, isolation only ended if a person had been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and if other symptoms were resolving.

AP education writer Bianca Vzquez Toness in Boston contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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COVID-19 no longer means five days in isolation, CDC says - The Associated Press

A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases details the incredible case of a German man who received a whopping 217 COVID-19 vaccinations in just over two years! This German man can give the Florida man a run for his money. Researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg were studying vaccine effectiveness when they stumbled upon this hypervaccinated individual through a newspaper report.

The 62-year-old man from Magdeburg, whose motivations for seeking so many shots remain private, readily agreed to participate in the study. Scientists were particularly interested in how his immune system handled such an extreme number of jabs, with official confirmation for 134.

Here's where things get interesting: despite his self-described hypervaccination, the man showed no signs of ever having been infected with COVID-19 and hadn't experienced any side effects from the vaccines. Even more surprisingly, researchers found his immune system to be in top shape!

For context, vaccinations normally train the immune system to recognise and fight off pathogens. But scientists worried that such frequent exposure to the same antigen (a part of the virus that triggers immune response) could lead to "exhaustion" of immune cells, making them less effective. This phenomenon is sometimes observed in chronic infections.

However, analysis of blood samples from the man, including some frozen from previous years and fresh samples taken during his 217th vaccination revealed no signs of immune cell fatigue.

"The observation that no noticeable side-effects were triggered indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability," says Dr Kilian Schober, the lead researcher. They even observed significantly higher levels of virus-fighting cells and antibodies compared to people who received the standard three-dose vaccination regimen.

"Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary," explains researcher Katharina Kocher. In simpler terms, the man's immune system seemed to have gotten a major boost from all those extra shots.

Important to Note: This is a single case study, and scientists caution against drawing broad conclusions. The recommended three-dose vaccination with boosters for high-risk groups remains the best strategy for most people.

This case, however, offers valuable insights. It shows that, at least for some individuals, the immune system can handle a much higher vaccination frequency than previously thought. Further research is needed, but this paves the way for a deeper understanding of our body's defense mechanisms against COVID-19.

The findings of this study have been detailed in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and can be accessed here.

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German Man Who Got Himself Jabbed With 217 COVID-19 Vaccines Lives to Tell the Tale | Weather.com - The Weather Channel