Posted on 01/14/2022 8:49:46 AM PST by Red Badger
A model of COVID-19 is seen ahead of a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 2020. Pool Photo by Saul Loeb/UPI | License Photo
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Vaccination is still the best way to protect someone from COVID-19, but new research suggests that immune system activation of T-cells by common colds may offer some cross-protection.
The study might also provide a blueprint for a second-generation, universal vaccine that could prevent infection from current and future variants, the research team said.
"Being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn't always result in infection, and we've been keen to understand why. We found that high levels of preexisting T-cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect against COVID-19 infection," said study first author Dr. Rhia Kundu, from Imperial College London's National Heart & Lung Institute, in the United Kingdom.
"While this is an important discovery, it is only one form of protection, and I would stress that no one should rely on this alone," Kundu added in a college news release. "Instead, the best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is to be fully vaccinated, including getting your booster dose."
The study began in September 2020, when many people had neither been infected nor vaccinated, and included 52 people in the United Kingdom who lived with someone who had a SARS-CoV-2 infection and had been exposed. The participants took PCR tests after the exposure and again four to seven days later.
Their blood samples were taken within between one and six days of their exposure so that researchers could analyze the levels of pre-existing T-cells they had from previous common cold infections that also cross-recognized proteins of SARS-CoV-2.
The research team found significantly higher levels of these cross-reactive T-cells in the 26 people who did not become infected, compared to the 26 people who did.
To protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection, the T-cells targeted internal proteins within the virus, rather than the spike protein on the surface of the virus that helps it latch on to human cells.
Study limitations include that most of the participants were White Europeans. The findings were published online Monday in the journal Nature Communications.
Current COVID-19 vaccines don't induce an immune response to those proteins, so this offers a new vaccine target that could provide long-lasting protection, the researchers suggested. T-cell responses persist longer than antibody responses, which wane within a few months of vaccination.
"Our study provides the clearest evidence to date that T-cells induced by common cold coronaviruses play a protective role against SARS-CoV-2 infection. These T-cells provide protection by attacking proteins within the virus, rather than the spike protein on its surface," said senior study author Ajit Lalvani. He is director of the NIHR Respiratory Infections Health Protection Research Unit at Imperial.
"The spike protein is under intense immune pressure from vaccine-induced antibody, which drives evolution of vaccine escape mutants. In contrast, the internal proteins targeted by the protective T-cells we identified mutate much less," Lalvani added in the news release. "Consequently, they are highly conserved between the various SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron."
Well see, we never needed those clot shots.
So getting one form of the common cold might protect you from getting another form of the common cold? What a concept!
"Oops, I mean, 'It's just a cold, Jim!'"
Two years of lockdowns, social distancing, excessive use of sanitizers. Basically a sizable portion of the country has trashed their natural immunity to minor viruses. Just talked with my doctor last week about that. The less exposure you have to people the lower your natural resistance to everything in your environment. I have not stayed in and nor have I worn a mask for the last two years I shop at the grocery store at least 3 times a week because I work at home and it gives me a chance to get it out. I don’t know how much that is going to help protect me, but it’s definitely better than someone who has totally isolated themselves.
My doctor said he rarely get sick because he’s constantly exposed to so many people.
As a friend of mine calls it, the Howard Hughes syndrome. It has run amok and we’re just beginning to pay the price for that. What really concerns me is the number of children that have had so little exposure to other children they’re not developing any of the natural immunity that we did as kids. And I don’t know if they’re ever going to be able to play catch-up.
Not really a surprise. I picked up something from a friend in February 2020, before the CCP-Coronavirus lockdowns/CONdemic started in the West. My friend was at a Pastor’s conference in Dallas, in January. He was still recovering in mid-February. I got it from him, and had to take 3 days off work. It took me over 3 weeks to recover.
My job takes me to many nursing homes and hospitals, where I have had to pick up residents from ‘quarantined’ facilities, where there were ‘active’ CCP-Coronavirus cases. I have not got it, and I have not taken any of the mandated shots. In fact, I usually get two or three colds every winter. Last winter? None. This winter? A very mild cold.
Given that one type of cold is a coronavirus and the Fauxi/CCP developed virus was also coronavirus (though from a bat and containing ‘bits’ from HIV), it is not surprising that having a cold could result in some immunity to the CCP-Coronavirus!
May have mentioned before I have a family member who is a retired and very successful/well known doctor
Starting in april/may of 2020 he said the people who got constant tiny exposures to germs by living normally would likely be fine and the germaphobes would get hammered
kinda looks like he was dead on as about 50 or so of us in our circle are unvaxxed, traveling, and behaving as normally as possible and very few have gotten sick, much less really sick the last two eyars
In January of 2019 I got hospitalized with a nasty flu that escalated into pneumonia and failing kidneys - recovered fully, don’t want my fans to worry (grin). My wife had a cough and headache for a week. Go figure.
Who knows? Maybe that imparted some immunity to the Chung King flu. Or maybe none. All I know is that I have lived my life normally (no jabs) and am damn grateful not to have gotten sick - one mild cold in the fall of 2020.
I’ll be 70 in a couple of weeks and I’m not voluntarily giving up one day of a normal life to satisfy the despots. Shortly after recovering from that hospital stay I swapped my Suzuki for my Indian Scout. 30,000 wind therapy miles later I have not lived a day in fear. Eff them. If I get it and die, it damn sure won’t be because I refused to get the jab or wear a mask.
Life, real life lived, is not risk free. Nor should it be. Progressives have convinced the masses that life can be made risk free if they just abdicate all their liberties.
Two years of lockdowns, social distancing, excessive use of sanitizers. Basically a sizable portion of the country has trashed their natural immunity to minor viruses. Just talked with my doctor last week about that. The less exposure you have to people the lower your natural resistance to everything in your environment. I have not stayed in and nor have I worn a mask for the last two years I shop at the grocery store at least 3 times a week because I work at home and it gives me a chance to get it out. I don’t know how much that is going to help protect me, but it’s definitely better than someone who has totally isolated themselves.
My doctor said he rarely get sick because he’s constantly exposed to so many people.
As a friend of mine calls it, the Howard Hughes syndrome. It has run amok and we’re just beginning to pay the price for that. What really concerns me is the number of children that have had so little exposure to other children they’re not developing any of the natural immunity that we did as kids. And I don’t know if they’re ever going to be able to play catch-up.
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