NIH Director's Blog

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure… “That trial, involving hundreds of babies under a year old at high risk for developing peanut allergy, established that kids could be protected by regularly eating a popular peanut butter-flavored Israeli snack called Bamba. A follow-up study later showed those kids remained allergy-free even after avoiding peanuts for a year. Under the new recommendations, published simultaneously in six journals including the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, all infants who don’t already test positive for a peanut allergy are encouraged to eat peanut-enriched foods soon after they’ve tried a few other solid foods.” Early exposure seems to be the recommended path.

That assumption is based on the belief that an infection prevents reinfection, i.e. an infection is just as good at protecting a (recovered) patient as a vaccine is at protecting an uninfected person. But we have seen that Delta reinfects previously infected patients, ergo, an infection is at a best a leaky vaccine (ie as good as current vaccines, though there are indications that it is not [1]), and at worse, a catalyst to worse outcomes considering the danger done during previous infection, b) a vaccine is not offered to the previously infected, c) the effects of long term covid. [1] https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c…

Not being or knowing people applicable to the comment does not make it a straw man. Anyway, available sources so far seem to suggest greater immunity from the vaccine. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c…

Also interesting: “Is One Vaccine Dose Enough After COVID-19 Infection?” > A small, NIH-supported study, published as a pre-print on medRxiv, offers some early data on this important question [1]. The findings show that immune response to the first vaccine dose in a person who’s already had COVID-19 is equal to, or in some cases better, than the response to the second dose in a person who hasn’t had COVID-19. While much more research is needed—and I am definitely not suggesting a change in the current recommendations right now—the results raise the possibility that one dose might be enough for someone who’s been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and already generated antibodies against the virus. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/02/23/is-one-dose-of-covid-19-vacci…

This is why making vaccines virtually compulsory (eg. France) is a horrible idea. They should be 100% optional. It's very far from obvious taking one now is a good idea. It helps with delta, but new variants that evolve in response to pro-ADE selective pressure may be extremely dangerous to the vaccinated. Infected vaccinated people are variant factories, because they have same [1] [2] viral loads as unvaccinated, but less severe symptoms (for the delta strain) - meaning infected unvaccinated are much more likely to self-isolate fast, while vaccinated may not even know they have covid. We already know current vaccines are borderline worthless [3] in preventing delta infections - Pfizer is only 39% effective. In addition to that, selective pressure for new variants with more severe ADE doesn't exist inside people without antibodies because newly mutated strain has no competitive advantage. This means a new variant with severe ADE is almost certainly going to originate from a vaccinated person. Immunity from a past infection is more selective [4] which is very good as far as ADE risk is concerned, so the main risk is from current vaccines. Last but not least, policies that encourage 100% vaccinated environments (covid passes) create a perfect environment for a new ADE variant to preferentially spread - also because people there feel safe so they don't care about masks and social distancing. Trading a negligible risk from current covid strains for a potential risk of a…

This is an argument that first appeared in July 2020.[1][2] That led to comments such as, in October 2020, "If we add t-cell immunity (greater than 50%) to antibody immunity (around 20%) we have over 60% immunity in the general population which qualifies as population immunity (herd immunity). This is why we have not seen exponential growth of the disease anywhere in the world and why we will not see a second wave…". That was not a successful prediction. There's an experimental skin test being developed for COVID-19 T-cell immunity.[3] It's from a startup which announced the test, three new vaccines, and a share offering at the same time, which raises some questions. But at least people are working on this. [1] https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/07/28/immune-t-cells-may-offer-last… [2] https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/07/15/new-data-on-… [3] https://www.bioworld.com/articles/503586-tonix-looks-to-the-past-for-t…

Given that NIH doesn’t want to focus on “lengthening life” or indeed reducing disability anymore it seems that only wealthy people will get to live longer. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2023/09/28/words-matter-actions-have-imp…

The gene in question is FOXP4 which has been implicated in covid more generally: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/tag/foxp4/

There's a lot of research looking into this. Go search on pubmed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36639608/ There's also a large RECOVER initiative to better understand it. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2023/03/02/recover-what-clinical-researc…

We're stuck in a vicious cycle with allergies - first peanuts, now sesame, and possibly eggs in the future. When kids are exposed to the above early and often, they're much less likely to develop allergies. However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc. This exposes fewer children, which increases the percent that develop the allergy, requiring the allergen to be removed from more products & places people eat! Who knows if it applies to these buns, but it's an interesting situation we're stuck with. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure…

Looks like you added an extra g to that url. Corrected version: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure…

A study https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2019/12/17/aging-research-plasma-protein… found some blood protein changes at ages 34, 60 & 78.

This probably doen't apply to everything, but I did read that the lack of early exposure to peanuts had actually increased the number of individuals who developed peanut allergies. I found a 2017 NIH post which reccomends early exposure to helo prevent the alergy from developing: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure…

Here is a study that observes waning immunity over time for vaccinated individuals: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/11/09/israeli-study-shows-how-covid… Long story short, the study observes that there are progressively higher rates of infection in vaccinated cohorts who were vaccinated 4, 5, and 6 months ago. There were 1.7 infections per 1000 people in the cohort vaccinated 4 months ago. There were 2.2 infections per 1000 people in the cohort vaccinated 5 months ago. There were 3.3 infections per 1000 people in the cohort vaccinated 6 months ago. Obviously, nobody knows how Omicron changes this.

If the CDC said that, it is just carefully worded ignorance. The US’ NIH supported a research that confirmed it: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c… Just because “we the CDC” didn’t fund it doesn’t make it any less true.

The funny thing about India is that at the beginning of 2021, Covid was considered a thing of the past. Cases flat lined. The government was so confident it was trying to export vaccines to curry diplomatic favour. Then delta came. Turns out being infected with one variant doesn’t offer as much protection against another variant as being vaccinated. (https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c… > The new evidence shows that protective antibodies generated in response to an mRNA vaccine will target a broader range of SARS-CoV-2 variants carrying “single letter” changes in a key portion of their spike protein compared to antibodies acquired from an infection. So yeah, life is back to normal in India. Until the next variant.

Here's a few: Johjns Hopkins: Why COVID-19 Vaccines Offer Better Protection Than Infection https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/why-covid-19-vaccines-offer-be… NIH: How Immunity Generated from COVID-19 Vaccines Differs from an Infection https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c… Also, preprint on kinetics of regular infections vs breakthrus, showing vaccines rapidly suppressing viral loads - "Virological and serological kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant vaccine-1 breakthrough infections: a multi-center cohort study" https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.28.21261295v1.full.pdf Most illustrative is the chart on ~pg16, line 298.

May be not. > The new evidence shows that protective antibodies generated in response to an mRNA vaccine will target a broader range of SARS-CoV-2 variants carrying “single letter” changes in a key portion of their spike protein compared to antibodies acquired from an infection. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c…

Seems like vaccine antibodies target a broader range of variants https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c… Antibody titers are higher from vaccines as well. "After the second dose of the vaccine, antibody titers were up to 10 times higher than those of patients who had recovered from natural COVID-19 infection, suggesting that even those with prior exposure could benefit from vaccination." https://www.contagionlive.com/view/immune-response-from-mrna-covid-19-…

Unfortunately, no. Natural immunity is less durable against variants [1]. (Proof of exposure should be fine, though, for low-risk stuff in areas not undergoing an outbreak.) Given that and assuming we’ll have a permanently unvaccinated population, the virus would be expected to keep reinfecting that group, thereby increasing the selection pressure for strains that reinfect. [1] https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c…

>I was under the impression that any mutations to the spike proteins would make the current vaccines useless and would require changes to the vaccines just like the flu shot . Isn't this the case ? No, it is not the case. You don't just make one antibody that targets the entire spike that would be thrown off by a mutation. >Human Antibodies Target Many Parts of Coronavirus Spike Protein https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/05/18/human-antibodies-target-many-… So far, all the claims that a variant (London variant, South African variant, Indian variant) would be immune to the current vaccine have turned out to be unwarranted.

Natural antibodies target several proteins: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/05/18/human-antibodies-target-many-… Natural immunity robust and long lasting: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/health/coronavirus-immunity.html Killer t cell importance: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00367-7

I am not convinced that Dr Wu's mask during the Machurian epidemic is closer to N95 quality than our surgical mask with various ASTM rated level 1, 2 and 3 standards. If you have any credible references with scientific evidences to the actual quality of his original mask, I'd genuinely like to know. Personally I will take any protection that I could wear to mitigate and prevent the virus transmission to and from myself than using nothing, since Covid virus is known to be transmitted thru both airborne and bodily fluids including saliva[1]. Like they always mentioned "every little helps". There is also a popular old saying, "no rattan, roots will do" . [1]https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/04/22/study-demonstrates-saliva-can…

The true irony of this statement, and I want to emphasize I am not a doctor, is that you are more likely to cause a peanut allergy by avoiding it! https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure… Similar to germ theory, some exposure is actually good.

An article written by an expert in biology and disease and the director of the National Institutes of Health, which summarizes an a article that was published in a peer-reviewed medical journal and written by another accomplished medical doctor, isn't scientific enough for you. Why? Because Sweden didn't mandate masks. First, Sweden had more deaths per capital than most countries. Second, even if it had very good numbers, that would not mean that masks aren't effective. Masks save lives (1) (2) (3) (4) (1) https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-he… (2) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02801-8 (3) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7 (4) https://directorsblog.nih.gov/author/collinsfs/

> the experts early on decided it's a natural origin and completely unrelated to the lab, without any evidence I might point out No, that's BS. There is evidence, a quick Google search away, published in Nature back in March. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/03/26/genomic-research-points-to-na… https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

Something that suggests that immunity does stick (in monkeys). https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/07/14/study-in-primates-finds-acqui…

I've seen multiple reports of severe blood clotting and strokes in COVID patients, including those who are otherwise asymptomatic, including people under 50.[1] Given that there is a pandemic going around with similar symptoms, I don't think this is a huge leap (but again, I am not saying it's anywhere near certain either). I probably should have used this source in my original comment, I just grabbed the first link I had handy. [1]: https://www.biospace.com/article/covid-19-increases-risk-of-heart-atta… [2]: https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2020/07/what-is-known-about-covid-… [3]: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/06/11/searching-for-ways-to-prevent…

Vacuum cleaner of cadmium and lead, and developper of a cool new kind of surgical adhesives for skin grafting: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Male-of-Pomphorhynchus-laevis-in-O… https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9802069 https://directorsblog.nih.gov/tag/pomphorhynchus-laevis/

> Natural immunity should be better because you are exposed to all the same proteins in the vaccine plus more This directly contradicts what immunologists seem to be finding as in the "Antibodies elicited by mRNA-1273 vaccination bind more broadly to the receptor binding domain than do those from SARS-CoV-2 infection" [1] study. Summarized by the director of the NIH [2]: > antibodies elicited by the mRNA vaccine were more focused to the RBD compared to antibodies elicited by an infection, which more often targeted other portions of the spike protein. Importantly, the vaccine-elicited antibodies targeted a broader range of places on the RBD than those elicited by natural infection. If there's one thing we should learn from this pandemic it seems like the complexity and non-intuitiveness of the immune system is amongst them. 1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34103407/ 2: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/06/22/how-immunity-generated-from-c…