7 Comments

Thanks for continuing to write about the covid pandemic. So many important voices have ceased to inform the public and I fear that H5N1 is accelerating this process.

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founding
May 7Liked by TACT

Unfortunately, this statement

"For many, if not most people, especially if not exposed to a high viral load, they will quickly build a strong spike-specific T-cell response, which can quickly eliminate COVID-infected cells. (2)"

is not necessarily true. 'quickly eliminate' might not be the best term to use. 'quickly control' (perhaps?) This virus is very persistent. In the reference below, these researchers used a sophisticated technique to look for T-cell activation up to 2.5 years post Covid-19. From the reference...

"We identified cellular SARS-CoV-2 RNA in rectosigmoid lamina propria tissue in ALL these participants, ranging from 158 to 676 days following initial COVID-19 illness, suggesting that tissue viral persistence..."

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.23293177v1

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author
May 8Author

That's not good. They only confirmed the RNA in the subset of patients with Long COVID symptoms. It is an important finding and shows exactly what I suspected. That viral persistence is the primary cause of Long COVID symptoms.

"We obtained colorectal tissue for in situ hybridization SARS-CoV-2 RNA and immunohistochemical studies in a subset of participants with Long COVID symptoms."

The virus is getting better and better at persisting but for a majority of people, it takes a higher viral load exposure when they still have a strong immune response to an earlier infection. A majority of people are not next to or talking to the person that is infecting them, thus they are exposed to lower viral loads. It may be someone that walked down an aisle at a store a few minutes before they were there, or at a doctors appointment, from someone who left the office an hour before they walked in. For children and parents, with a near constant airborne presence in the air at schools, they are being exposed to lower viral loads all the time. Kids are often asymptomatic and will not necessarily produce a large viral load from the lower dose infections, particularly when the exposure is to a less mutated descendant of a symptomatic infection that occurred in the prior three to six because the memory T-cells are still circulating. In these cases, the body is primed to fight off the lower viral load exposures, quickly eliminating the virus before it can replicate to far and circulate throughout the body, likely avoiding persistent infections.

However, every time a more mutated variant, comes along, like BA.1, BA.5, BA.1.617.1, XBB.1.5, JN.1 and now the KB, LA, and LB variants, it will increase the odds of symptomatic infections and viral persistence even without any symptoms. When we consider the waning immunity in the 100's of millions of people with JN.1 infections from November through February, people who get hit with the latest variants becoming increasingly prevalent throughout June, July and August are at a much higher risk compared to last summer with the XBB.1.5 descendants. The risk is also increasing because this will be many peoples third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or higher infection. As we know, each infection carries greater risk. It's lining up to be a very rough summer, with millions of people acquiring new persistent infections. As if that isn't bad enough, we will have millions of people with weakened immune systems at the same time H5N1 is looking for human hosts to evolve within. This is very bad.

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founding
May 8Liked by TACT

"...persistence even without symptoms."

That is a REAL concern as these variants become more immune evasive. Very bad, indeed.

And additional bogeys are entering the arena, not necessarily unrelated to SARS-CoV-2 immune dysfunction.

Particularly concerning is dengue.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/record-surge-dengue-cases-latin-america-spurs-warning-rcna145612

And today...another bogey enters the threat matrix.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON516

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author
May 8Author

I just noticed this pre-print was published in July, 2023. I wonder why it isn't getting peer reviewed and published already. I have to wonder if it's getting held up because some people don't want it published.

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founding

Anyone shocked by the CDC position below hasn't been paying attention...

https://twitter.com/SolidEvidence/status/1787915217558716438

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author
May 8Author

It is not surprising at all., but despite seeing them manipulate and downplay everything for over four years, it is still disappointing every time they take deliberate actions like this. It's so disturbing to know that this huge agency charged with protecting the public health, actively ignores science and data, putting peoples lives in jeopardy.

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