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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

16 Nov

https://twitter.com/akheriaty/status/1460135683561963520

1/ An AP fact checker reached out and inform me that this tweet is false: two cardiologists confirmed that 70% of myocarditis cases are mild or asymptomatic. But the term "mild myocarditis" is misleading to the lay public.

https://twitter.com/akheriaty/status/1460135683561963520

2/ Imagine a physician saying to a patient or parent that 70% of the heart attacks caused by a proposed medical intervention are mild or minimally symptomatic. The patient would still quite rightly be concerned: attaching "mild" to "heart attack" does not allay this concern.

3/ Another way to think about it: if a medication has a mild adverse-effect (e.g., dry mouth or even weight gain), a doctor might continue it if the benefits were significant. But no doctor would continue a medication that was causing myocarditis, even if mild or asymptomatic.

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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

17 Oct

1/ The largest population-based study comparing the unvaccinated/naturally immune to the vaccinated found that vaccinated people were 6 to 13 times more likely to get infected, 27 times more likely to get symptomatic infections, and 8 times more likely to be hospitalized.

2/ These findings are not surprising, since infection with the virus allows our body to form an immune response to many parts (epitopes) on the virus, whereas the vaccines expose us only to one part, the spike protein.

3/ Data from Qatar found that only 0.02% of Covid recovered individuals experienced reinfection, with no waning over time, and with reinfections less severe than initial infections.

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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

16 Oct

1/ Much of the debate on natural immunity focuses on questions about antibody levels, but these are of variable clinical relevance:

2/ antibody levels do not necessarily correlate with long-term immunity. Circulating antibodies always drop over time, whether after infection or vaccination.

3/ Long-term immunity relies also on memory B-cells (which quickly ramp up antibody production when re-exposed to the virus) and T-cells.

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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

30 Sep

Ideas are not viruses. You won't expose yourself and "catch" something deadly by reading, talking to, or considering the viewpoints and perspectives of those with whom you have strong disagreements. Be open and willing to learn. Admit that you don't yet have all the answers.

I want to follow my own advice here. Engage me if you think my claims expressed here or elsewhere are mistaken. Give reasons, cite evidence, ask difficult questions. I will engage and try to respond in kind, so long as there are no bad faith arguments or ad hominem attacks.

I have faith that shared rationality, in which all of us can participate, is not yet dead (though it may be on life support these days). We cannot let propaganda and power games have the last word.

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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

29 Sep

@mdlizs

1/ @mdlizs and @DrSandman11 I have never encountered someone who is "advocating for 'natural immunity' over vaccination." I certainly have never done so. This is a straw-man argument, but a telling one. I advocate for those who have *already recovered* from Covid.

https://twitter.com/mdlizs/status/1443237374608171010

2/ I have never suggested anyone deliberately try to get infected with the virus. This mischaracterization is telling, for it reveals one of the key reasons that so many public health officials and physicians refuse to acknowledge what research shows about natural immunity.

3/ Scientific findings are ignored not because they are false, but because people worry that if the public knows, it might impede behavioral outcomes (getting vaccinated) that public health officials want. But this just reveals a condescending contempt for the intelligence...

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Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

22 Sep

@EPPCdc

1/ From my colleague Carl Truman at @EPPCdc:

"Technology has served to fuel humanity’s belief in, if not its own omnipotence, then at least in its ability to achieve anything it wishes by the deployment of instrumental reason and technical know-how.

2/ "In this context, it is interesting to notice the panic, perhaps even mass hysteria, induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been faced with an enemy which cannot be immediately defeated and which brings the reality of mortality closer to us than has been typical of our age,

3/ "... marked as it is by the practical denial of death. Our panicked response has entailed eliminating the consideration of any social good except the immediate preservation of life, whatever the cost to others, and a corresponding desperate hunt for a vaccine.

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