VSS Scientific Updates During Pandemic Times #45
November
19, 2022
By
1)
U.S. Flu Hospitalizations Highest in 10 years, Officials Say
“An early fall
spike in influenza cases has pushed U.S. hospitalization rates for the illness
to the highest in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials said on
Friday, noting that vaccination rates are down.”
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/u.s.-flu-hospitalizations-highest-in-10-years-officials-say
2) Would a Mucosal Covid-19 Vaccine Have Been More
Effective? Geert Responds
From Geert: I would like to comment on the following section:
“The Covid-19 vaccines have not delivered in
terms of preventing infection and transmission. These products clearly do not
prevent transmission. They should never have been expected to, by virtue of
their mechanism of action (i.e. the creation of blood-borne antibodies, when -
as with other respiratory viruses - the primary immune defenses reside in the
mucous membranes lining the upper respiratory tract and lungs).”
With this statement you are suggesting that mucosal
C-19 vaccines may do the job. This is not correct. There is no evidence
whatsoever that mucosal vaccines would prevent immune escape when administered
during a pandemic. There is no evidence either that any (experimental) mucosal
vaccine works better than the same vaccine administered intramuscularly or
subcutaneously (even for pathogens entering via mucosal membranes). That’s why
the spectrum of commercialized mucosal vaccines is scarce. It’s not because a
respiratory pathogen invades the body via the mucosa that mucosal vaccine
administration is more efficacious. It’s also a complete misunderstanding that
systemic antibodies do not reach the mucosa (they actually do via
transudation). In addition, to maintain high titers of neutralizing IgA,
regular booster doses (every 3-4 months) are required. But even then, one will
not avoid immune escape when these vaccines are used during a pandemic.
I am reacting to this statement as it provides
grist to the mill of those who remain convinced that we can vaccinate ourselves
out of the pandemic. The real reason as to why C-19 vaccines cannot
prevent infection or transmission is because they don’t induce sterilizing
immunity. Vaccine-induced Abs cannot sterilize the virus when the
immune system gets already exposed to the virus while it is still in the process
of mounting an antibody (Ab) response. It takes time for these Abs to
become fully functional (neutralizing capacity) and reach a high enough
concentration to neutralize the virus. As long as the humoral response is
insufficient/ immature, the Abs exert suboptimal immune pressure on viral
infectiousness. This will lead to natural selection and dominant propagation of
more infectious variants. This increases viral infectivity and promotes viral
transmission instead of reducing it. I understand that PANDA is not a
science-oriented organization but that should not be an excuse to make
statements that are scientifically incorrect. Those may be easier for the
public to understand but eventually lead to confusion and may even encourage
another bunch of nonsensical initiatives.
3) Antibody Responses to Omicron BA.4/BA.5 Bivalent mRNA Vaccine Booster Shot – Preprint
“At ~3-5 weeks post booster shot, individuals who
received a fourth vaccine dose with a bivalent mRNA vaccine targeting BA.4/BA.5
had similar neutralizing antibody titers as those receiving a fourth monovalent
mRNA vaccine against all SARS-CoV-2 variants tested, including BA.4/BA.5. Those
who received a fourth monovalent vaccine dose had a slightly higher
neutralizing antibody titers than those who received the bivalent vaccine
against three related sarbecoviruses: SARS-CoV, GD-Pangolin, and WIV1. When
given as a fourth dose, a bivalent mRNA vaccine targeting Omicron BA.4/BA.5 and
an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain did not induce superior neutralizing antibody
responses in humans, at the time period tested, compared to the original
monovalent vaccine formulation.”
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.22.513349v1.abstract
4) Recipe for Disaster: Combining COVID-19 BA4/5
and Influenza mRNA
“mRNA coding for influenza would be a new
biological product not under EUA so should have to go through the full 5-year
regulatory development cycle for genetic biologicals. It looks like the
vaccine companies are trying the shortcut this development cycle by combining
the non-emergency flu shot with the EUA COVID-19 vaccine.”
5) 1 in every 310 people died within 1.5 months of
receiving the COVID Vaccine Booster*
*Note: We did
not include a previous article from The Expose after reading some comments on
that article which suggested that the author was cherry picking the data and
leaving out relevant information. With this article, the same commenter has
these comments:
"Sorry to repeat myself but you are again
cherrypicking the data. Not only did you pick mortality during winter months
but you did not specify how many elderly were among the total deaths for that
period and did not specify that those are the most likely third dose vaccinated
people.
With above perspective in mind the 62.801 deaths out of a skewed total of just
under 20million most fragile people during 48 days in wintertime is not
indisputable evidence of anything.
By the way your use of logarithmic scale might also be considered slightly
biased to hide the disproportionate mortality between age groups…."
It's not to say the author is wrong, but that
further analysis is needed. The correlation is still there, which warrants
attention.
https://expose-news.com/2022/11/10/1-in-310-triple-vaccinated-dead/
6) COVID Booster May Lower Protection Against
Omicron Reinfection, Study Finds
“A COVID-19 booster, specifically a third vaccine
dose, may lower protection against getting infected with the omicron variant
again for some people — and there’s a reason why, new findings suggest.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article268224827.html
Geert Vanden Bossche received his DVM from the
University of Ghent, Belgium, and his PhD degree in Virology from the
University of Hohenheim, Germany. He held adjunct faculty appointments at
universities in Belgium and Germany. After his career in Academia, Geert joined
several vaccine companies (GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay
Biologicals) to serve various roles in vaccine R&D as well as in late
vaccine development.
Geert then moved on to join the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle (USA) as Senior
Program Officer; he then worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva as Senior Ebola Program Manager. At GAVI he
tracked efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. He also represented GAVI in fora
with other partners, including WHO, to review progress on the fight against
Ebola and to build plans for global pandemic preparedness.
Back in 2015, Geert scrutinized and questioned the
safety of the Ebola vaccine that was used in ring vaccination trials conducted
by WHO in Guinea. His critical scientific analysis and report on the data
published by WHO in the Lancet in 2015 was sent to all international health and
regulatory authorities involved in the Ebola vaccination program. After working
for GAVI, Geert joined the German Center for Infection Research in Cologne as
Head of the Vaccine Development Office. He is at present primarily serving as a
Biotech / Vaccine consultant while also conducting his own research on Natural
Killer cell-based vaccines.
Email:
info@voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org
