"De theorie van *immunitydebt* die de wereldwijde toename van infecties sinds het versoepelen van de pandemiemaatregelen zou verklaren, wordt steeds meer in twijfel getrokken door nieuw bewijsmateriaal."
#Covid #LongCovid #Immunitydebt
Waarom wetenschappers de immuniteitseffecten van SARS-CoV-2 heroverwegen.
https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1733
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
“Immunity debt,” a theory to explain the global surge in non-covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is increasingly being challenged by emerging evidence. Nick Tsergas reports
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a bacterial infection not known to cause widespread hospital admissions. “I can count on my two hands the number of times I’d ever seen mycoplasma pneumoniae before 2023,” says Samira Jeimy, clinical immunologist at the University of Western Ontario. “All of a sudden I feel like everybody has it.”1
Over the past three years similar reports have circulated of rising bacterial infections, flare-ups of old viruses becoming more common, and children landing in hospital with diseases not usually seen in young, healthy people. One explanation offered by public health leaders has been “immunity debt”2—the idea that precautions taken in the covid pandemic suppressed routine exposures to circulating pathogens, leaving people more vulnerable to them when restrictions were lifted.
The theory landed in the public consciousness at the right moment. A simple idea that sounded like science, it soothed a public seeking answers just as the world was returning to a semblance of normality. And it served a policy function, allowing governments to focus on economic recovery.
But its explanatory power has faded as the number of non-covid infections has kept rising each year. A 2024 analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention3 found that invasive group A strep infections saw their most dramatic year-on-year increase from 2021 to 2022, well after most precautions had been lifted in the US. Rates have been abnormally high since then, raising questions about what might be behind the trend.
A growing number of scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may instead be subtly altering our immune systems. If correct, their hypothesis will change how we understand everything …
This is an important article showing the debate and evidence on the long-term impacts of #Covid, and touching on the political side of the debate. Easily understandable by people not familiar with immunology.
Some chosen extracts here, but the article should be accessible in full.
https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1733
Thanks @detachedspork for sharing it first! (https://mastodon.ie/@detachedspork/115060008744414646)
#CovidIsNotOver #LongCovid #ImmunityDebt
Useful piece at The BMJ, about covid messing with T cells etc.
Depressing that there's still so much denial in this area. Anthony Leonardi was trying to raise awareness of T cell damage back in 2021. (Difficult to make head or tail of his relentlessly non-layperson explanations, but he was at least talking about it.)
https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1733
#covid #immunity #research #ImmunityDebt #CovidIsntOver
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
“Immunity debt,” a theory to explain the global surge in non-covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is increasingly being challenged by emerging evidence. Nick Tsergas reports
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a bacterial infection not known to cause widespread hospital admissions. “I can count on my two hands the number of times I’d ever seen mycoplasma pneumoniae before 2023,” says Samira Jeimy, clinical immunologist at the University of Western Ontario. “All of a sudden I feel like everybody has it.”1
Over the past three years similar reports have circulated of rising bacterial infections, flare-ups of old viruses becoming more common, and children landing in hospital with diseases not usually seen in young, healthy people. One explanation offered by public health leaders has been “immunity debt”2—the idea that precautions taken in the covid pandemic suppressed routine exposures to circulating pathogens, leaving people more vulnerable to them when restrictions were lifted.
The theory landed in the public consciousness at the right moment. A simple idea that sounded like science, it soothed a public seeking answers just as the world was returning to a semblance of normality. And it served a policy function, allowing governments to focus on economic recovery.
But its explanatory power has faded as the number of non-covid infections has kept rising each year. A 2024 analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention3 found that invasive group A strep infections saw their most dramatic year-on-year increase from 2021 to 2022, well after most precautions had been lifted in the US. Rates have been abnormally high since then, raising questions about what might be behind the trend.
A growing number of scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may instead be subtly altering our immune systems. If correct, their hypothesis will change how we understand everything …
@DenisCOVIDinfoguy Haven't we been saying this for years? Why is it shocking? I do hope they'll stop banging on about
#ImmunityDebt now.
#CovidIsNotTheFreakingFlu #WearAFreakingMask @auscovid19 Here's the email I just sent to
#ScienceFriday explaining why I will no longer listen to them.
(Text in the replies.)
🧵 1/9
#COVID #CovidIsNotOver #ImmunityDebt #science"... Think of it like this.
Your body already knows how to heal its skin and bones. You don't have to teach it how to do that by cutting yourself or breaking your arm."
#immunityDebt"Like many debunked ideas, hygiene theory and the myth of the bored immune system have become entrenched. A couple of years ago, hygiene theory got repackaged as "immunity debt." Now Americans, Canadians, and many Europeans think they need to get sick to stay healthy. The elites have absolutely no problem with that. It saves them countless billions to let everyone continue thinking they're better off letting diseases run around in their cells."
https://www.okdoomer.io/how-your-immune-system-actually-works/#immunityDebt #publicHealth #inequality
How Your Immune System Actually Works
George Carlin was wrong.
"Like many debunked ideas, hygiene theory and the myth of the bored immune system have become entrenched. A couple of years ago, hygiene theory got repackaged as "immunity debt." Now Americans, Canadians, and many Europeans think they need to get sick to stay healthy. The elites have absolutely no problem with that. It saves them countless billions...."
https://www.okdoomer.io/how-your-immune-system-actually-works/#immunityDebt #publicHealth #inequalityHow Your Immune System Actually Works
George Carlin was wrong.
Martin Angler (
@martinangler.com) asked
#immunology prof Danny Altmann about
#ImmunityDebt and the myth that repeat viral infections benefit our
#immune system.
Here's a 1-min sound clip of the reply:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/18374...Thread by @martinangler on Thr...“It’s kind of like a boxer, every fight takes a little bit more out of them. And they’re not getting stronger with every fight, they’re not getting stronger with every hit that they take. Every single time there’s an increased chance that something bad is going to happen to the immune system and I think that this influx of illness that we’re seeing is related to that.”
#covid #immunesystem #vaccines #immunitydebt
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/09/03/COVID-Surge-High-Price-Viral-Denial/
As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial | The Tyee
Canada’s health system reels as by one estimate 1,000 die weekly. Each infection carries risks. Where’s the prevention?
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