in which we dive into the complex world of RSV, its vaccines, and why we’re suddenly having a massive surge in cases|
I solicited questions across my social media about the new updated COVID-19 boosters and did my best to answer them here.|
Newscasters go on air and misrepresent what the Pfizer documents actually say.|
A FOIA request was used to obtain a pharmacovigilance document from Pfizer about the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is being widely misinterpreted. The honest truth is the report demonstrates quite clearly that the vaccine is safe.|
A recent study claims to show evidence that mRNA vaccines can reverse transcribe into DNA, implying potential for genetic harms from the vaccine. In truth, the study doesn’t show much of anything beyond that cancer cells behave like cancer cells.|
The gist: Robert Malone is among hundreds of scientists who contributed to the effort to make mRNA vaccines possible, having done some important early experiments that helped to prove the concept. However, Malone has distinguished himself on the basis of being a prolific source of vaccine misinformation and wants more or less sole credit for the invention of mRNA vaccines as a concept, even though he had no role in the central ideas that make our current mRNA vaccines possible and continues t...|
A labeled Omicron spike protein showing all the different amino acid changes in the spike protein. Changes with documented phenotypic effects from literature are colored light orange or cyan for insertions/deletions while others without documented phenotypic effects are colored in green. Via GISAID. Headlines are awash with doomsday prophecies about the Omicron variant, and the panic has far outpaced the data we have, so I thought it might be useful to give a quick update of what we currently...|
In my last post, I explained that the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 has been slightly modified with respect to an inactive ingredient: the buffer. Buffers are substances that resist changes to pH (the acidity or alkalinity of a solution). Buffers are a very important component of mRNA vaccines (really all vaccines but mRNA vaccines especially) because mRNA does not tolerate alkaline conditions, which the buffer helps to ensure do not occur in the vial. Specifically, under alkaline ...|
Hi, all! Been a little while. Sorry about that. I had some really critical projects to tend to that couldn’t wait and now I have a bunch of backlogged posts that are unfinished but I think will be of value which I am progressively working on getting out. I think this is a good note to start on though for the end of my hiatus. Today (October 26, 2021) was the 170th VRBPAC meeting concerning the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children aged 5 to 11 years, and I did something insane: I live tweet...|
Over the last few weeks, people have been asking me for my opinions regarding vaccine passports and some have been outraged by the fact that many such systems do not consider infection-acquired immunity and that I as a proponent of science-based policy should voice dissent with this apparently unscientific policy. I’m about to disappoint those people profoundly though- these policies are completely correct to ignore infection-acquired immunity, and I would go as far as saying in all setting...|
Rich R. Clinical immunology. 5th ed. Elsevier; 2019 Figure 4.2 I recently made a post in one of my science Facebook groups trying to explain some of the basics about antibodies to people and was asked if it could be shared. The group, however, is private so sharing its content is not permitted but I realized I could just reproduce the post below, so this is that (also I can include hyperlinks here which is nice). It’s more informal than the content of this blog usually is. I have modified i...|
There is presently a viral video circulating featuring the testimony of Dr. Christina Parks regarding COVID-19 vaccines and mandating them. In this video, she makes a number of blatantly false claims or prevaricates and they are worth going through in detail. Parks recycles a few of her points so this is mostly chronological but if she returned to a particular subject I discuss it in the same section rather than mentioning it a second time. Gene therapy Parks begins her testimony by alleging ...|
Key concepts for gene therapy. Gene therapy aims to (a) replace the function of a defective gene with a functional one, (b) suppress a pathologic genetic variant, or (c) repair a defective gene directly through genome editing. Anguela, X. M. & High, K. A. Entering the modern era of gene therapy. Annu. Rev. Med.70, 273–288 (2019). Figure 2 Recently I’ve seen a surge in concerns that the COVID-19 vaccines are gene therapy. I am not sure what the source is, and furthermore whether or not COV...|
Global prevalence of the Kappa variant via outbreak.info Global prevalence of the Delta variant via outbreak.info. I have written at length about the prospect of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) in COVID-19 before here, but recently some individuals have seized on a Letter to the Editor by Yahi et al. published in the Journal of Infection which notes the presence of infection-enhancing antibodies, wherein those individuals imply (or overtly state) that ADE in COVID-19 is now confirmed and...|
The gist: Presently and primarily in younger males with the second dose, there appears to be a small increase in the risk of myocarditis with mRNA vaccination. This is definitely not a trivial matter and it needs to be taken seriously, but the concerns need to be weighed against the risks of COVID-19. To start with, COVID-19 is itself a known cause of myocarditis, and even if we take 12-17 year-old-males and the second dose of mRNA vaccine as a point of reference (available data suggest this ...|
The gist: While we do need well-designed prospective studies that look explicitly at whether or not vaccines prevent long COVID, and those studies are underway, we know that you need to get infected with SARS-CoV-2 to develop long COVID. We have quite a bit of data to show that vaccines do in fact prevent that, both by preventing direct infection of the vaccinated individual and by blocking subsequent transmission of the virus. For that reason, it’s likely that COVID-19 vaccines do in fact ...|
The gist: Some have taken note of the disappearance of influenza with this pandemic, and argued that this is because of viral interference from SARS-CoV-2: in essence, people are becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and therefore rendered incapable of catching influenza. Some are taking it so far as to suggest that this explains the decline of flu rather than non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) like masking, distancing, ventilation, humidity, handwashing, etc. The problem is: there’s reall...|
I honestly can’t believe I even wrote that title, because truthfully the optimism that is required to put together that sequence of words in that order is something I could not have conceived of even a few months ago. The pandemic is not over- it’s not close to over actually- in many parts of the w| Deplatform Disease
The gist: Many seem to hold to the incorrect idea that immunity acquired through infection is superior to immunity acquired by vaccination but multiple examples show this isn’t true: recovery from tetanus generally does not confer any protection while vaccination induces protection in virtually eve| Deplatform Disease
A surprisingly large number of people have sent me a video that is inundated with disinformation about COVID-19 and its reach seems considerable so I have deemed it significant enough to address. In the video, one Dr. Dan Stock from Indiana at a school board meeting opines at length about all the th| Deplatform Disease