The question of whether some people have pre-existing immunity to Covid has been with us since the early days of the pandemic. Many scientists initially assumed there would be little or no pre-existing immunity. After all, SARS-CoV-2 was novel, highly infectious virus that appeared well adapted for human transmission.
However, in the spring of 2020, scientists began to report cross-reactive T-cell activity in people who hadn’t been infected with the virus, and – in some cases – in those who hadn’t even been exposed. However, it remained unclear whether such T-cell activity played any role in immunity.
Were individuals with cross-reactive T-cells less likely to become infected? Were they less likely to get seriously ill, conditional upon being infected? We simply didn’t know. Some even speculated that T-cell activity might predispose to more severe disease…
Evidence is now emerging that T-cell activity does play a role in immunity. In a recent study, Chinese scientists studied Covid patients and their close contacts who did not become infected. They observed “significant levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T-cell immunity” in the uninfected contacts, hinting at a role for T-cells in staving off infection.
In a separate study, the same group of scientists studied Covid patients who experienced varying degrees of disease severity. They found that activation of two types of T-cell was “strongly and inversely correlated” with the severity of disease. One caveat is that their sample comprised only 12 people.
The most convincing evidence to date comes from a recent study published in the Nature by a team of British scientists. Leo Swadling and colleagues followed 700 healthcare workers in London for 16 weeks during and after the first wave of the pandemic.
They identified a subset of participants who had never tested positive for Covid and were seronegative at week 16. They then matched these individuals by age, sex and ethnicity to participants who had been infected by week 16. They also matched them to healthy adults who’d been sampled before Covid began circulating.
What did the researchers find? The seronegative participants had SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cells that were “comparable in breadth” to those of participants who had been infected. What’s more, participants’ T-cells were higher in “magnitude and breadth” than those of the healthy adults sampled before the pandemic.
These findings strongly suggest (but do not prove) that some healthcare workers were protected against infection by pre-existing T-cell immunity.
One of the study’s authors, Francious Balloux, noted that the “ability to control infections through pre-existing T-cell immunity likely stemmed from constant pre-pandemic low-level exposure of HCWs to endemic coronaviruses”. If he’s right, than pre-existing T-cell immunity might be much less common in the general public.
Professor Balloux also cautioned that “X-reactive T-cell immunity may not be sufficient to control infections by the more aggressive α/δ strains”. (Recall that the study was based on data from the first wave, before Alpha, Delta or indeed Omicron had emerged.)
While more research is clearly needed, evidence suggests that pre-existing immunity to Covid has been underestimated. This is consistent with what scientists like Sunetra Gupta (co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration) have been arguing since last year.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Dr Pierre Kory co-wrote this so he obviously knows full well what the cause, or one of them, of excess, non-Covid deaths is;
”Life insurance actuaries are reporting that many more people are dying – still – than in the years before the pandemic. And while deaths during COVID-19 had largely occurred among the old and infirm, this new wave is hitting prime-of-life people hard.
No one knows precisely what is driving the phenomenon, but there is an inexplicable lack of urgency to find out. A concerted investigation is in order.
Deaths among young Americans documented in employee life insurance claims should alone set off alarms. Among working people 35 to 44 years old, a stunning 34% more died than expected in the last quarter of 2022, with above-average rates in other working-age groups, too.
This isn’t only happening in the United States. The United Kingdom also saw “more excess deaths in the second half of 2022 than in the second half of any year since 2010,” according to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
In the first quarter of 2023, deaths among people 20 to 44 years old were akin to “the same period in 2021, the worst pandemic year for that age group,” U.K. actuaries reported. Younger-age death rates were “particularly high” when compared with the average mortality for 2013 to 2020.”
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/08/11/more-americans-dying-than-before-pandemic-covid-deaths/70542423007/
”“Blind faith and bans won’t get us to net zero”
If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,’ the Walrus said,
That they could get it clear?’
I doubt it,’ said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
As Alice in wonderland starts to look ever more like a beacon of sanity in our crazy modern world; both the UK and the USA are trying to throw shed-loads of our money down a hole in the ground to capture that dastardly carbon.
https://www.science.org/content/article/us-unveils-plans-for-large-facilities-to-capture-carbon-directly-from-air#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Department%20of%20Energy,direct%20air%20capture%20(DAC).
As anyone who has studied organic chemistry will know, carbon is the cornerstone of organic life and yet we have demonised it. And now we are going to spend huge amounts of money to capture and bury it! Carbon capture is a weird sort of industry as it will cost a fortune and yet we will never really know if they captured anything or not? nor will we ever really be able to tell it was of any benefit? The only tangible thing to come out of it is that the people involved in this sham/scam industry will make shed-loads of money.
Ah yes, but as the meme ( truism ) says; ”You are the carbon they want to reduce.”
https://twitter.com/EthicalSkeptic/status/1689698371559145472/photo/1
“both the UK and the USA are trying to throw shed-loads of our money down a hole in the ground to capture that dastardly carbon.”
It would appear Mogs that the truism should read:
“You are the carbon they want to BURY.”
“Can Jeremy Clarkson please be the next Mayor of London?”
I’m not a fan of Clarkson but he’s spot on here. Hey SadKhan, what’s the cost benefit analysis of removing a shedload of healthy mature trees (CO2 utilisers & shady temp regulators) to be replaced by heatsink fossil fuel based tarmac then?
Holland Park Avenue is one of the most beautiful streets in London. It has a truly continental air with its London Plane trees giving welcome shade and relief on those odd days when global boiling boils over into the city. I lived nearby many, many moons ago when I was at college in London and I remember it well with huge affection. Used to buy delicious, but strange to me, Middle Eastern breads from some of the Lebanese or Cypriot mini markets. Khan seems to have no affinity to London and its history and these special places. He is a destroyer not a creator. I doubt very much Jeremy Clarkson would want to be Mayor but he is bang on with how most people feel about this. The sooner Khan is gone the better and I can’t wait to say, to paraphrase a line from Pulp Fiction, ‘Khan’s gone, baby, Khan’s gone!’
There is a cycle lane which has taken nearly 2 years to build still ongoing on the road leading to the A44 slip road outside of Oxford, as you may imagine its a main run for people to get to work in cars, however it is now necessary to add on at least 30 minutes to any journey involving this road because of the mass disruption, it has gone on for so long and still does not appear to be near the end, I suspect its running into the high tens of millions now to build, and guess what? the number of Pedestrians and cyclists that use, in fact have ever used this road is minimal. Meanwhile the roads are dangerously full of potholes and nothing is done. But then Oxford is anti car and anti human, and its been that way for years, hopefully in their persuit of stopping the vehicle this will also include the food and goods deliveries such that the place can retreat back to the medieval utopia the council and the voters there desire.
update on the ‘lesbian Anna’ story..It is behind a paywall so I’ve pasted the salient bits…Also look at the woke in the last paragraph…doesn’t mention autism it’s neurodiversity!!? LOL….I didn’t think they could come across as any more idiotic ..but….!!
Lots of comment all saying it was ridiculous, and not the behaviour of an adult..never mind a PC….also one comment cleared something up that I wondered when I read it….how do you arrest someone in their own home for a public order offence…?apparently you can’t….
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/11/girl-arrested-lesbian-nana-comment-no-action-west-yorkshire/
‘Releases girl from her bail’A statement released by police on Friday said: “In relation to an incident in Leeds on Monday, where a 16-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of a homophobic public order offence, West Yorkshire Police has now reviewed the evidence and made the decision to take no further action.
“This concludes the criminal investigation and immediately releases the girl from her bail. Her family has been updated.
“West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate is continuing to carry out a review of the circumstances after receiving a complaint in relation to the incident.”
Assistant Chief Constable Oz Khan said: “We recognise the significant level of public concern that this incident has generated, and we have moved swiftly to fully review the evidence in the criminal investigation which has led to the decision to take no further action.
“Without pre-empting the outcome of the ongoing review of the circumstances by our Professional Standards Directorate, we would like to reassure people that we will take on board any lessons to be learned from this incident.
“We do appreciate the understandable sensitivities around incidents involving young people and neurodiversity and we are genuinely committed to developing how we respond to these often very challenging situations.”
Lesbian NANA..bloody sausage fingers..and auto correct!!!
The female police officer should be arrested for wasting police time. And for her haircut.
Melissa Fleming says the UN “owns the science”.
Judith Curry says the UN´s science is “manufactured“.
But we´re not allowed to debate it.
Nor is parliament.