Thread by @TactNowInfo

🧵 Airborne Assault of Measles and COVID-19: A Ticking Time Bomb of Immune System Damage and Viral Evolution
(TACT-February 25, 2024)

The convergence of measles and COVID-19 poses a significant threat, especially with evidence showing declining immunity in some individuals vaccinated against measles and newborns awaiting MMR vaccination. Similar to COVID-19, heightened transmission rates of measles increase the risk of persistent infections aiding viral evolution, potentially leading to greater evasion of the existing immunity.

Both diseases harm the immune system, with measles even erasing immunity to other pathogens. This dangerous combination of highly contagious airborne viruses demands attention. 1/

COVID Variants Update
The latest COVID variants have remarkable immune escape and binding capabilities.

JN.1 and its many sub-variants make up over 97% of all the variants in circulation. We are going to look at the ones gaining the most momentum.

JN.1.4 has an estimated growth advantage of 32% over JN.1. JN.1.11.1 has an estimated 70% growth advantage over JN.1. JN.1.23 has an estimated 67% growth advantage over JN.1.

JN.1.23’s combination of increased immune escape and ACE-2 binding may make it more dangerous than JN.1.11.1 but not necessarily more transmissible. The evolutionary track towards greater immune escape and stronger binding is what should be most concerning to everyone.
2/

KP.1 Variant (JN.1.11.1.1)

JN.1.11.1, already the fastest spreading variant, has added mutations, giving it a much greater growth advantage. The
new variant has been designated as KP.1 (JN.1.11.1.1) with the S:K1086R mutation. It has a growth advantage estimated to be greater than 200% over JN.1. It’s very early, so this will likely decline some, but the direction of evolution is continuing towards greater immune escape and a stronger binding to our cells.

How far has KP.1 spread?
There are 26 cases of KP.1 found in Canada (mostly Ontario), 2 in Queensland, Australia, 1 in Hong Kong, 1 in India, 1 in the United Kingdom, and 4 in the United States (NY, CA). We have to keep in mind that this is with limited sequencing, so this variant may already be much more widespread.

We can see that this very much remains a global pandemic. 3/

Paxlovid Did Not Limit Long COVID

Paxlovid did not help prevent #LongCOVID in the latest studies. Findings on Long COVID and Symptom Rebound: (Jan 4, 2024) "Researchers found the two groups were similar. About 16% of those treated with Paxlovid had long COVID symptoms compared to 14% of those who were not treated with the medication."

“Our finding that Paxlovid treatment during acute infection is not associated with lower odds of long COVID surprised us, but it is consistent with two other rigorously conducted studies finding no difference in post-COVID conditions between 4 and 6 months after infection.”
(scitechdaily, Feb 16, 2024)

Note: This thread will highlight some of the important points, but for the complete article with graphs, links to sources, and much more, follow the link to TACT’s substack page. Sign up for free. Free subscribers will be notified via email and have full access after Feb 28, 8pm.


4/tactnowinfo.substack.com/p/airborne-ass…

Measles - Symptoms, Incubation period, and Potential Complications

Individuals most vulnerable to measles include those who are unvaccinated, unsure of their immunization status, pregnant women, and individuals with weakened immune systems due to conditions such as HIV, malnutrition, or certain medications.

Incubation time: Symptoms of measles typically manifest 7 to 14 days (avg. 10) after exposure but may appear up to 21 days later.

Symptoms: Symptoms may encompass a high fever, cough, runny nose, red and/or watery eyes, conjunctivitis, tiny white spots in the inner cheeks, gums, and roof of the mouth two to three days after symptoms begin, and a red rash, raised, blotchy usually starting on the face and spreads to the body 3 to 5 days after symptoms begin.

Potential complications of measles can involve pneumonia, brain inflammation
permanent hearing loss due to ear infections, pre-term births, and low birth weight infants.
5/

Measles Updates
A New Measles Variant Impacting Testing
In a landscape already grappling with the relentless evolution of COVID-19 towards heightened immune evasion, the emergence of a new measles variant adds a fresh layer of complexity, with reports indicating its potential to diminish the reliability of certain measles tests.

“Further identification of a measles variant displaying mutations impacting molecular diagnostics, Northern Italy, 2024”
7/

Waning Maternal Antibodies in Newborns: Vulnerability to Measles

A 2021 study revealed that although newborns initially benefit from maternal antibodies, the gradual decline of these antibodies before measles vaccination at 9 months renders infants vulnerable to infection.

"An earlier administration of the first vaccine dose would shorten the susceptibility period. However, humoral immunogenicity is reduced when measles vaccination is administered at 6 months, with an average seroconversion rate of 76% compared with 92% at 9 months [37]. As a result, vaccine effectiveness has been demonstrated to be lower in those under 9 months but whether or not administration would still be beneficial in terms of reducing disease severity and overall morbidity is an ongoing discussion."



8/ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

How Measles Spreads Throughout the Body

“Measles spreads rapidly from the respiratory tract to multiple organs through a cell-associated viremia fueled by extensive replication in lymphoid tissues. Virus dissemination occurs over several days during a clinically asymptomatic incubation period before the appearance of the rash. MeV replication occurs in multiple types of cells including lymphocytes, dendritic cells, macrophages, epithelial cells, and endothelial cells.”
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