12 Comments

Good news albeit not surprising. Now, will governments begin recognizing natural immunity? The USA so far largely ignores it for policy purposes. Aaron Kheriaty, MD, who recovered from Covid, filed a lawsuit on behalf of UCal employees against the vaccine mandate for all employees. Those with natural immunity should have a choice. He was fired: https://aaronkheriaty.substack.com/p/farewell-university-of-california

What else? If we count the number of people who have recovered from Covid-19, we get a much better estimate of herd immunity. Rather than relying on the number of people who meet the ever-shifting definition of "fully vaccinated."

I am hoping after this massive Omicron wave, health experts outside the USA, at least, will recognize the pandemic is largely over. We just add the increasingly mild Covid virus to our list of endemic viruses, and get on with our lives. If enough EU nations come to their senses, the USA will need to eventually. Time will shortly tell.

Expand full comment

They ignore natural immunity because their sole purpose and drive is to get this mRNA into people. Now we have to ask, why? No matter the science or data these folks can't stop talking about the vac for a second. It's hard to deny it feels something very sinister is going on.

Expand full comment

Everyone needs to supplement vitamin D3 to get their circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L or more, which is what their immune system needs to function properly. Unless they have had a lot of UV-B skin exposure recently, people who do not supplement vitamin D3 at all typically have levels 5 to 25 ng/mL This needs to be done anyway, COVID-19 or not.

For 70 kg bodyweight, 0.125mg 5000 IU / day vitamin D3 is a good intake, but it takes months to build up the 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, so more - or better still calcifediol, which is 25-hydroxyvitamin D - is needed in emergencies like COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome etc. for the majority of the population which has very low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/calcifediol-25-hydroxyvitamin-d-or and https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ .

It cannot be assumed that future variants of SARS-CoV-2 are going to be mild or milder than Omicron. Omicron is not a walk in the park - especially for the majority of people in the Western world who have very low 25-hydroxyvitamin D and who are denied any form of early treatment by their governments.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no strong reason for viruses to evolve to cause milder symptoms. It so happens that Omicron's adoption of endosymal cell entry, over entry facilitated by TMPRSS2, reduced its ability to reproduce in the lungs, so causing it to be less likely to cause severe disease. The positive selection for this trait is due to this enabling greater reproduction in the nasal passages. It so happens that this also reduces the ability of the virus to fuse multiple host cells together into larger, lymphocyte engulfing, syncitia. https://nutritionmatters.substack.com/p/omicrons-generally-less-harmful-mechanisms

All other things being equal, if the virus can still shed and so transmit itself at a given rate, and is equally infectious to the recipient, if it evolves to give milder symptoms so as to enable the infected person to remain in contact with other people more, then this will be successful. However, greater basic viral performance - such as stronger binding between the spike protein's receptor binding domain and the ACE-2 receptor - generally drives greater viral shedding and more serious symptoms.

If the virus causes the infected person to have symptoms like sneezing or coughing, then that boosts transmission and severity. The rabies viruses cause dogs to become aggressive and bite other mammals, so spreading the virus.

Expand full comment

If people had severe covid, they are likely immune incompetent and it's a dice throw whether they survive another infection. They should be supplementing with vitamin D and zinc to improve their immune competence.

Vaccines are unlikely to help people who are immune incompetent. Vaccines stimulate the immune system, which is largely ineffective if someone is immune incompetent.

Expand full comment
author

You're right. About 70% of people w/severe COVID19 had antibodies to their own tissue prior to infection. So they have a Th2-skew... and we know what causes that.

Expand full comment

James - for those of us not in the know: can you clarify what would have caused the Th2-skew? For people who had antibodies to their own tissue before their severe Covid-19?

Expand full comment

Another excellent article! I facetiously wonder why there was no mention of natural immunity at the Supreme Court hearing on OSHA regulation for vaccine mandates.

Expand full comment

A little off topic, but question about detecting immunity. How reliable are the (pricey) T-cell detect tests? My husband just had one done and we were shocked it came back negative. We both had COVID in early August and were pretty sick. Had all the classic Delta symptoms - no taste & smell, below-normal levels of O2 in blood, etc. - and didn't treat with IVM, steroids, antibiotic, etc. until about day 9. It took my husband 3-4 weeks to fully recover and he is as healthy as a horse. There's no way that wasn't COVID.

Expand full comment

I had a bad case of CoVid for 15 days in Jan. 2021, took an antibody test three months later, had antibodies, took the T cell detect test last week was positive after one year.

Expand full comment

College students need to fight the booster mandates!

Expand full comment

Sadly, governments around the world continue the spin the lie that the unvaccinated are the problem and need to be fined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaWpSwHsJDc&t=161s Here we learn Greece is on the precipice of mandating COVID jabs for all. They are fining those over 60 who haven't gotten the shot - 100 euros a month. So rather than allowing and celebrating those who have developed natural immunity, they want to stop that from ever being allowed to happen.

Expand full comment