“It is time for India’s policymakers to trust those with relevant expertise, to make sure the necessary data are collected and available, and to accept the value of scientific findings, even if they do not fit the government narrative”
Did elections contribute to the COVID-19 surge? We are always tempted to say yes. I decided to do a comparison. Surprisingly, the graphs I obtained from election & non election states are near-identical. This suggests that the wave is a seasonal surge in a geographic region. 1/9
The two images represent election states (where big outdoor gatherings occurred) on the right, and comparable non election states on the left. I have included two sets of pictures. The names of the states are on the graph. If you compare the timelines, it is near-identical.
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The question is whether the surge would have occurred anyway, by pattern, and maybe the large election rallies amplified it to an extent.
This virus behaves in a wave-like pattern in most nations. The reason for the steep upward slope is exponential increase.
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T cells work against variants & are not affected by E484K or N501Y mutation.
1 dose of vaccine is enough if past infection: the response was so amplified, it even covered the major variants B.1.351 & B.1.1.7. Note that vaccine is based on old virus.
But in naive patients, T cell response was lower with one dose of vaccine.
96% (22/23) of vaccinated post infection individuals made a T cell response to Spike protein, compared to 70% (16/23) of vaccinated naïve individuals.
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After 1 dose, vaccination-naïve (no past infection) group attained similar antibody titers to the post infection group at 16–18 & 28–30 weeks.
The majority of SARS-CoV-2 immune naïve individuals made no nAb response to the B.1.1.7 (18/20) and B.1.351 (17/20) after 1 dose.
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T cell response to vaccination: Work from University of Pennsylvania. Thread.
-CD4 T cell response includes Th1 and Tfh cells
-Th1 cells support & enhance memory CD8 T cell responses
-Tfh cells work on germinal centres, B cells & plasma cells
AstraZeneca Vaccine and clots: this important paper from Germany proves that VITT is not the result of cross-reactivity between anti-spike antibodies and platelet factor 4 (PF4).
VITT is vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, an extremely rare and serious complication with low platelet count & unusual clot formation.
This is being extensively discussed in the context of AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine.
This thread explains the research above.
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The researchers’ findings also suggest that PF4 antibodies are likely an “innocent bystander” in many patients. In other words, their presence alone does not predict disease.
In fact, 9 of 10 COVID-19 patients who had thrombosis did not have PF4 antibodies.
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