Native Answers Coronavirus Related Basic Science Questions

[Native]

I have gotten a few more questions as of late. More news cycles, more stories, etc. etc.

The latest "variant" XBB.1.5/Kraken/whatevs. is a stepwise mutation that one would expect to continue to find and is essentially an omicron descendent. So given we are only talking a couple of point mutations, the vaccines will not be reduced remarkably to this variant, though all the mutations might be moving slightly stepwise further away. Other mutations that we don't see move it away from infectivity, viability etc.

A main point to remember is that vaccines don't drive the mutations, infections do. So getting vaccinated, staying home if sick, masking and testing in appropriate settings are all still beneficial.

Tweet with excess details:



Picture is for fun as death of the host isn't truly the virus goal.

 

[Native]

Don't post nearly as often, because for the most part, new information and data isn't changing that much at this point, we all have fatigue from the debates and information that is constantly tossed about.

Though I think this is a very fair article, (quoting guys I listen to on the topic) that is well written for a broad audience. This deals with a lot of the immunology theories that have been tossed out to the public from people lacking a full understanding of immunology etc.

Enjoy.

What Is COVID Actually Doing to Our Immune Systems?

The research sounds scary—but it’s complicated.

slate.com

 

[Native]

Co-published article that attempts to summarize the lab leak vs spillover event debate. Out as of yesterday. Tweet and link to pdf.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/jvi.00365-23?download=true

 

[Native]

https://x.com/jsm2334/status/1724421355699920904?s=20

This paper looks at sudden cardiac death over time in college athletes. It's conclusions Are that the incidence of SCD in college athletes has decreased. Male sex, Black race, and basketball are associated with a higher incidence of SCD.

What was not found was an association with the first year of vaccine uptake and cardiac death. This article is only interesting in the light of anti-vaccine arguments that the vaccine causes or leads to increased risks. There is plenty of arguments that I have seen on FB that suggest that the vaccine is causing cardiac events like this and it is the reason that college athletes are dying. So this lack of an association or change over time is supportive of the vaccine not being the cause of the claim of increased cardiac death.

Limitations are that the study finds that there is not a change in a very low frequency event. The time post vaccine isn't long as only 1 year of follow up was done. Arguments against the vaccine would suggest that this extreme outcome isn't a good marker for understanding vaccine effects as the issues might be slower or more insidious than a "Sudden Cardiac Death".