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COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#1

Post by LM K »

Please let me know if the title for this topic should be adjusted.

I've spent wayyyyy too much time arguing on Twitter with anti-maskers, antivaxxers, Ivermectin idiots, etc.

Many anti-maskers claim that masks doesn't work. After all, their cousin's sister in law's prayer circle said that Dr. X said xyz.

We now have a brilliant, randomized study of 340,000 subjects about the efficacy of masks for controlling the spread of covid. Because this is from WaPo, I have quoted it in it's entirety for Fogbow members.

H/T to Orlylicious for his idea of quoting subscription only content for only Fogbow members.
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I'm delighted that this study didn't just research mask efficacy. It evaluated methods to increase mask wearing.

One of the four critical steps to increase mask-wearing ... endorsement of mask-wearing by local leaders.

Our leaders have demonized mask-wearing. When Trump was President, very few staff members wore masks. Those who did removed them when Trump was present. Governors have used executive order powers to ban mask-wearing mandates anywhere ... especially in crowded, indoor areas.

I also see a "social contract" component to this study. Mask-wearing was particularly high in indoor settings where social distancing was extremely hard. The four interventions; free masks delivered door-to-door, education about mask-wearing, reinforcing mask-wearing, and local leadership encouragement, all facilitated the "social contract" that mask-wearing is the ethical and caring thing to do.

I haven't read the study yet. I don't think this study explores the "social contract" that does or does not enhance masking-wearing. Psychologists and public health researchers might be able to explore that in the future. It's possible that the data from this study is still being crunched and will be written up separately.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#2

Post by raison de arizona »

I've read the article and browsed the study, I don't really have much to say about it right now other than thanks for posting :thumbsup: . I've already used it multiple times in stupid internet fights with nextdoor people.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#3

Post by RTH10260 »

repost of part of a post in a differen thread:


ETA. this is when you get the full dosis of vaccines
"If you were vaccinated six months ago, your immune system has been training for six months — you are better ready to fight a COVID-19 infection," says Ellebedy.

A series of new studies, including two led by Ellebedy, suggests that mRNA vaccines like those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trigger the immune system to establish long-term protection against severe COVID-19 — protection that likely will last several years or even longer, Ellebedy says.

in https:// www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/ ... youd-think
ETA. When you have been ill w/o taking vaccines
How long does immunity last after having COVID?
Updated: Aug. 28, 2021, 9:17 p.m. | Published: Aug. 28, 2021, 7:30 a.m.
Coronavirus cells
After catching the virus, most people who had COVID-19 have detectable antibodies. But experts say the protection they get after having the virus is still less than when people get vaccinated.(NIAID/TNS) TNSTNS

By Katherine Rodriguez | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
After testing positive for COVID-19, most people then have detectable antibodies. But experts say the protection they get after having the virus is still less than when people get vaccinated.

Here is a breakdown of how this works, especially as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads throughout the nation.

Does a COVID infection make you immune from further infections?

An infection creates an immune response and recognizes the coronavirus. Antibodies are also produced.

A previous infection offers about 80% protection from the coronavirus, while those who received both doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have about 95% protection against the viruses, Dr. John Wherry told WHYY. Wherry is the director of the Institute for Immunology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wherry also said, according to WHYY, lab studies suggest protection following a case of COVID-19 begins to wane slightly after about three months, but can last for as long as up to 10 months.

So while protection is good for those who already caught COVID-19 in some form or another, it is not as strong as the vaccines.

https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/08/ ... covid.html
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#4

Post by RTH10260 »

Drug-resistant infections have increased in hospitals during the pandemic.

By Matt Richtel
Sept. 2, 2021

At the height of the pandemic, doctors and nurses made furious efforts to protect themselves with gowns and masks and scrambled to save the lives of the severely ill Covid-19 patients with ventilators.

But these efforts, among other life saving measures, had a side effect: drug-resistant infections have increased in hospitals.

The development, reported on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came about in part because drug-resistant bacteria thrived on reused protective equipment, intravenous lines and medical equipment like ventilators.

Drug-resistant infections have in recent years become a gnawing, sometimes deadly, problem. The threat has grown as various germs — notably bacteria and fungi — have mutated and developed defenses that allow them to resist medications and thrive; the germs prey in particular on older patients and the immunocompromised, limiting drug options to counter infections or, in extreme cases, leaving no effective treatments.

Immense efforts have been made in recent years to slow the growth of these noxious microbes that, increasingly, resist treatment by various classes of medicines. In the second half of 2020, though, “sometimes these efforts went terribly wrong,” with so much focus on stopping transmission of Covid-19, according to a commentary that accompanies the new study by the C.D.C. The authors wrote that the practices best known to stop the spread of drug-resistant infections were ignored or subverted in the face of a larger threat.

Drug-resistant bloodstream infections at hospitals rose 47 percent in the last three months of 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier. That was a sharp change in momentum. In the first three months of 2020, such infections had fallen nearly 12 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, reflecting heightened efforts at the time to stop the spread.

Similar trends showed up with regard to infections traced to ventilators, which rose 45 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 over the previous year. During the same period, infections from one bacterium — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA —rose 34 percent after having fallen in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the same period a year earlier.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/heal ... demic.html
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#5

Post by Lani »

More creepy stuff about Covid.

Why some COVID-19 infections may be free of symptoms but not free of harm
Scientists are studying the potential consequences of asymptomatic COVID-19 and how many people may suffer long term health problems.
Eric Topol was worried when he first saw images of the lungs of people who had been infected with COVID-19 aboard the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan in the earliest weeks of the pandemic.

A study of 104 passengers found that 76 of them had COVID but were asymptomatic. Of that group, CT scans showed that 54 percent had lung abnormalities—patchy gray spots known as ground glass opacities that signal fluid build-up in the lungs.

:snippity:

Still, there is some evidence that asymptomatic disease can cause serious harm among some people—including blood clots, heart damage, a mysterious inflammatory disorder, and long COVID, the syndrome marked by a range of symptoms from breathing difficulties to brain fog that linger after an infection. Here’s a look at what scientists know so far about the effects of asymptomatic COVID-19 and what they’re still trying to figure out.

:snippity:

In May, cardiac MRI scans of 1,600 college athletes who had tested positive for COVID-19 revealed evidence of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, in 37 people—28 of whom hadn’t had any symptoms, says Saurabh Rajpal, a cardiovascular disease specialist at the Ohio State University and lead author on the study.

:snippity:

... FAIR Health, a national healthcare nonprofit, found from an analysis of healthcare claims that about a fifth of asymptomatic patients went on to become long-haulers. Another study, which is under peer review, used data from the University of California’s electronic health records and estimated that number could be as high as 32 percent.
Also, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in asymptomatic children.
A recent study of 1,075 children who had been diagnosed with MIS-C showed that three-quarters had originally been asymptomatic.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... 48368741AA
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#6

Post by RTH10260 »

Another Hidden Covid Risk: Lingering Kidney Problems
In a study of veterans, Covid survivors were 35 percent more likely than other patients to have long-term kidney damage or declines in kidney function.

By Pam Belluck
Sept. 1, 2021

Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors have found that people who become very ill with Covid-19 often experience kidney problems, not just the lung impairments that are the hallmark of the illness.

Now, a large study suggests that kidney issues can last for months after patients recover from the initial infection, and may lead to a serious lifelong reduction of kidney function in some patients.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found that the sicker Covid patients were initially, the more likely they were to experience lingering kidney damage.

But even people with less severe initial infections could be vulnerable.

“You see really, across the board, a higher risk of a bunch of important kidney-associated events,” said Dr. F. Perry Wilson, a nephrologist and associate professor of medicine at Yale, who was not involved in the study. “And what was particularly striking to me was that these persisted.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/heal ... amage.html
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#7

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... arch-shows
Covid-19 can infect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and change their function, potentially explaining why some previously healthy people develop diabetes after catching the virus.

Doctors are increasingly concerned about the growing number of patients who have developed diabetes either while infected with coronavirus, or shortly after recovering from it.

Various theories have been put forward to explain this increase. One is that the virus infects pancreatic cells via the same ACE2 receptor found on the surface of lung cells, and interferes with their ability to produce insulin – a hormone that helps the body to regulate levels of glucose in the blood; alternatively, an over exuberant antibody response to the virus could accidentally damage pancreatic cells, or inflammation elsewhere in the body may be making tissues less responsive to insulin.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#8

Post by Lani »

Because I had training about covid in its early days, via John Hopkins & Coursera, I get updates on new info. Today, I received this about a new course that updates covid information.
Little has changed with regards to diagnosis except that in industrialized countries RTPCR and antigen tests are now readily available. With regards to treatment nonpharmacological modalities are unchanged; however new medications have been proven to be modestly helpful. In addition to remdesivir and dexamethasone, tocilizimab, baricitanib and monoclonal antibody cocktails can improve outcome. Multiple randomized clinical control trials have shown hydroxychloroquine to be equivalent to a sugar pill when it comes to COVID-19 treatment. Also ivermectin, lopinovir-ritonovir as well as convalescent plasma are of no benefit.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#9

Post by Volkonski »

As expected. Deniers will ignore.

Get vaccinated.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#10

Post by RTH10260 »

YouTube bans all anti-vaccine misinformation.

Sept. 29, 2021
By Davey Alba

YouTube said on Wednesday that it was banning the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine activists from its platform, including those of Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as part of an effort to remove all content that falsely claims that approved vaccines are dangerous.

In a blog post, YouTube said it would remove videos claiming that vaccines do not reduce rates of transmission or contraction of disease, and content that includes misinformation on the makeup of the vaccines. Claims that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that the vaccines contain trackers, will also be removed.

The platform, which is owned by Google, has had a similar ban on misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines. But the new policy expands the rules to misleading claims about long-approved vaccines, such as those against measles and hepatitis B, as well as to falsehoods about vaccines in general, YouTube said. Personal testimonies relating to vaccines, content about vaccine policies and new vaccine trials, and historical videos about vaccine successes or failures will be allowed to remain on the site.

“Today’s policy update is an important step to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we’ll continue to invest across the board” in policies that bring its users high-quality information, the company said in its announcement.

In addition to barring Dr. Mercola and Mr. Kennedy, YouTube removed the accounts of other prominent anti-vaccination activists such as Erin Elizabeth and Sherri Tenpenny, a company spokeswoman said.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/tech ... x-ban.html
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#11

Post by tek »

Multiple randomized clinical control trials have shown hydroxychloroquine to be equivalent to a sugar pill when it comes to COVID-19 treatment.
Expect a run on sugar pills.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#12

Post by jcolvin2 »

tek wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:24 am
Multiple randomized clinical control trials have shown hydroxychloroquine to be equivalent to a sugar pill when it comes to COVID-19 treatment.
Expect a run on sugar pills.
Gonna get me some of that sweet, sweet placebo to treat my COVID-19.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#13

Post by bill_g »

jcolvin2 wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:34 am
tek wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:24 am
Multiple randomized clinical control trials have shown hydroxychloroquine to be equivalent to a sugar pill when it comes to COVID-19 treatment.
Expect a run on sugar pills.
Gonna get me some of that sweet, sweet placebo to treat my COVID-19.
Do they have it in spearmint?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#14

Post by LM K »

:thumbsup:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#15

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

bill_g wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:05 am
jcolvin2 wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:34 am
tek wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:24 am

Expect a run on sugar pills.
Gonna get me some of that sweet, sweet placebo to treat my COVID-19.
Do they have it in spearmint?
Planning on buying stock in Altoids?
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#16

Post by Sam the Centipede »

A missable digression on hydroxychloroquine:
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#17

Post by somerset »

jcolvin2 wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:34 am
tek wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:24 am
Multiple randomized clinical control trials have shown hydroxychloroquine to be equivalent to a sugar pill when it comes to COVID-19 treatment.
Expect a run on sugar pills.
Gonna get me some of that sweet, sweet placebo to treat my COVID-19.
And then some metformin to treat the placebo ;)
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#18

Post by bill_g »

W. Kevin Vicklund wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 11:45 am
bill_g wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:05 am
jcolvin2 wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 7:34 am
Gonna get me some of that sweet, sweet placebo to treat my COVID-19.
Do they have it in spearmint?
Planning on buying stock in Altoids?
No, but there are natural flavor futures! (aren't there?)
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#19

Post by Lani »

How COVID-19 can damage all five senses
The virus that causes the disease disrupts not just smell and taste, but all the ways humans perceive the world. For some, the loss may be permanent.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... 48368741AA
It’s easy to take our senses for granted—until there’s a problem with one of them. This is something many people who suffered from COVID-19 discovered when they unexpectedly lost their senses of smell and taste. More recently, though, it has become apparent that a COVID-19 infection can also affect sight, hearing, and touch.
:snippity:
... In the March issue of the International Journal of Audiology, researchers reviewed published case studies and other reports of COVID-19 symptoms, and they estimate that hearing loss has occurred in about 8 percent of patients who had COVID, while about 15 percent developed tinnitus.

... A study published last year in BMJ Open Ophthalmology found that light sensitivity, sore eyes, and blurred vision are among the more common eye disorders experienced by patients. And in a study involving 400 COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, researchers found that 10 percent had eye disorders, including conjunctivitis, vision changes, and eye irritation....
:snippity:
In a study published in May 2021, researchers evaluated 100 people who weren’t hospitalized for COVID-19 but had ongoing symptoms. They found that 60 percent had numbness and tingling six to nine months after the onset of their illness. Sometimes these symptoms were widespread throughout the body; in other instances, they were localized to the hands and feet.

A review of studies published in 2020 found that of 8,000 subjects with confirmed COVID-19, 41 percent experienced problems with smell and 38 percent reported problems with taste. When people who contract COVID-19 lose their sense of smell, a condition called anosmia, they lose it across the board, not just with one type of scent....
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#20

Post by Sam the Centipede »

That's interesting, thanks. It reflects the wider point that the problem with Covid-19 is the generalized body response, anything and everything can be affected. The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke has a page of relevant information on the NIH website: Coronavirus and the Nervous System. It's good stuff, worth reading if this issue is of particular interest. From that, an introductory comment:
Research shows the many neurological symptoms of COVID-19 are likely a result of the body’s widespread immune response to infection rather than the virus directly infecting the brain or nervous system.
I'm confident that one outcome of this pandemic will be a much deeper understanding of (and hence treatments for) the many varied chronic illnesses that people can experience after this and other infections (in big words, post-acute viral sequelae).
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#21

Post by FiveAcres »

The numbness and tingling sound somewhat like the after effects of people who have mostly recovered from shingles.

I've had two cases: the first time I thought it was combination of eczema and carpal tunnel in my right arm. I realized it was probably shingles the morning of my appointment with my PCP. It was too late for the anti-virals, though she would have prescribed them anyway.

The second time I didn't get the lesions, but I did decide those weird sensations might be a recurring case of shingles. I was also told I was moaning in my sleep, which was weird because I wasn't having that much pain when I was awake. That time I got the antivirals within the appropriate window, and I never developed the lesions.

Getting the Shingrix vaccine is on the list after my Pfizer booster and my pneumonia vax.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#22

Post by RTH10260 »

NYT Newsletter: Nearly 11 of every 100,000 males ages 16 to 29 developed temporary heart inflammation after having been fully vaccinated, according to a new study. Though higher than earlier estimates, it is lower than the risk of heart problems after contracting Covid-19.
Myocarditis after Covid-19 Vaccination in a Large Health Care Organization
List of authors.
Guy Witberg, M.D., Noam Barda, M.D., Ph.D., Sara Hoss, M.D., Ilan Richter, M.D., M.P.H., Maya Wiessman, M.D., Yaron Aviv, M.D., Tzlil Grinberg, M.D., Oren Auster, M.Sc., Noa Dagan, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Ran D. Balicer, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Ran Kornowski, M.D.
Article
Figures/Media
Metrics

11 References
1 Citing Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Reports have suggested an association between the development of myocarditis and the receipt of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), but the frequency and severity of myocarditis after vaccination have not been extensively explored.

METHODS
We searched the database of Clalit Health Services, the largest health care organization (HCO) in Israel, for diagnoses of myocarditis in patients who had received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech). The diagnosis of myocarditis was adjudicated by cardiologists using the case definition used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We abstracted the presentation, clinical course, and outcome from the patient’s electronic health record. We performed a Kaplan–Meier analysis of the incidence of myocarditis up to 42 days after the first vaccine dose.

RESULTS
Among more than 2.5 million vaccinated HCO members who were 16 years of age or older, 54 cases met the criteria for myocarditis. The estimated incidence per 100,000 persons who had received at least one dose of vaccine was 2.13 cases (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.56 to 2.70). The highest incidence of myocarditis (10.69 cases per 100,000 persons; 95% CI, 6.93 to 14.46) was reported in male patients between the ages of 16 and 29 years. A total of 76% of cases of myocarditis were described as mild and 22% as intermediate; 1 case was associated with cardiogenic shock. After a median follow-up of 83 days after the onset of myocarditis, 1 patient had been readmitted to the hospital, and 1 had died of an unknown cause after discharge. Of 14 patients who had left ventricular dysfunction on echocardiography during admission, 10 still had such dysfunction at the time of hospital discharge. Of these patients, 5 underwent subsequent testing that revealed normal heart function.

CONCLUSIONS
Among patients in a large Israeli health care system who had received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, the estimated incidence of myocarditis was 2.13 cases per 100,000 persons; the highest incidence was among male patients between the ages of 16 and 29 years. Most cases of myocarditis were mild or moderate in severity.



https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2110737
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#23

Post by Sam the Centipede »

Myocarditis is, I think, the main reason why countries are very twitchy about vaccinating healthy young folk. That plus their very low risk of developing bad Covid if infected. From an ethical point of view, it's not considered ok to vaccinate one group (with the attendant risks, however small) if the only benefit is to protect a different group.

Young people mount a stronger immune response to vaccination than us oldies and it's that that causes the myocarditis (all? inflammation is mediated by the immune system). Consistent with that, the risk of myocarditis is higher if a second dose is administered, so young people should only have a single dose, which provides adequate protection.
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#24

Post by tek »

In mice, injection into a vein rather than a muscle has been show to cause heart issues
Conclusions: This study provided in-vivo evidence that inadvertent intravenous injection of COVID-19 mRNA-vaccines may induce myopericarditis. Brief withdrawal of syringe plunger to exclude blood aspiration may be one possible way to reduce such risk.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34406358/
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Re: COVID research: Masks, Vaccines, Social Distancing, Treatments

#25

Post by Sam the Centipede »

Thanks for that tek, it's interesting. And it seems reasonable (not that seeming reasonable to non-experts* is a good guide in these matters).

Muscles are very active cells, and include resident populations of immune cells. Muscle growth after damage, including damage due to normal strenuous exercise, afaik involves the immune system's inflammatory response - perhaps any weights bunnies here know?

Injection of the mRNA vaccine into muscle causes the mRNA (enclosed in its little lipid wrapper) to enter muscle cells and be expressed as the spike protein analog, and the immune cells (dendritic cells?) spot that and raise the alarm. So the immediate response is localized, although the immune cells later wander around the body in the blood and lymph systems to propagate the acquired response.

Guesswork here: if the mRNA gets into the bloodstream, it is rapidly moved around, and the heart muscles are working all the time, so they are exposed to the mRNA, express the spike protein analog, and the inflammation is part of a normal immune response, sometimes exaggerated in susceptible individuals.

* On reasonableness in these contexts:
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