Cont: The One Covid-19 Science and Medicine Thread Part 5

[dann]

COVID-19 and shingles.

 

[dann]

Jammer on X, Sep 9, 2025
250K people infected with SARS2 tracked for Cardiovascular events; ‘results were striking and worrisome. Most concerning was persistence of risk over time.
At 1, 2 and 3 years post-infection, risk of heart attack & stroke didn’t diminish.’
Henry Miller, MD, Molecular Biologist.

The lingering pandemic: The chronic toll of untreatable long COVID (Genetic Literacy Project, Sep 4, 2025)

 

[dann]

Another one of those correlations:

tern on X, Oct 20, 2025
If Covid infections could interfere with the way your body handles fats, you'd expect a massive jump in the number of episodes of hospital treatment for that problem.

tern on X, Oct 20, 2025
What do you think the graph is going to look like?

tern on X, Oct 20, 2025

Lipoprotein (Wikipedia)

The rest of tern's Twitter mentions many other correlations, which makes it likely that there is causation and not just correlation.

 

[dann]

The anti-vaxxers really don't like this piece of good news:

mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy (MedicalXpress, Oct 19, 2025)
Patients with cancer who received mRNA-based COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immune checkpoint therapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning treatment, according to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
(...)
This study included multiple cohorts of several cancer types, evaluating patients who had received an mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy treatment.
In the first group, 180 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received a vaccine had a median survival of 37.33 months, compared to 20.6 months in 704 patients who did not receive a vaccine. In a cohort of patients with metastatic melanoma, median survival was 26.67 months in 167 patients who did not receive a vaccine, but it had not yet been reached in 43 patients receiving a vaccine—suggesting a significant improvement.

They have been so fond of their turbo cancer (Wikipedia) idea:

CryptoSala on X, Oct 22, 2025
So you're saying these f**kers now say they got an anti-dote to the issue they created themselves?
No surprise Big Harma are investing heavily in cancer

 

[dann]

Cat (Solidarit1) on X, Oct 24, 2025
"It could be a cry for help".
"...the lion is making the rounds again—but this time as a covert(ish) way to talk about long COVID symptoms."
"...This meme allows people to joke around while still opening up about their personal struggles."
Exactly.

The Lion Does Not Concern Himself With Long COVID. Maybe He Should? (Men's Health, Oct 23, 2025)
THE TEXT ON the Tik Tok videos always starts with: “The lion does not concern himself with…” followed, usually, by something that probably should concern someone.
Since the meme got popular in 2022, it's resurfaced a few times and evolved from chest-thumpy expressions of masculinity to airing petty grievances and other bizarre jokes. And now, the lion is making the rounds again—but this time as a covert(ish) way to talk about long COVID symptoms.
In one post, user @Stavalopulos wrote, “The lion does not concern himself with the cough he’s had since COVID.”
“The lion does not concern himself with his noticeable memory loss, brain fog, and slight cognitive decline,” wrote @MaybeMackenzie in another post.

 

[dann]

Just correlation? Maybe ...

tern on X, Oct 25, 2025
(...)

 

[dann]

A summary of this study:

Distinct characteristics of T cell receptor repertoire associated with the SARS-CoV-2 reinfection (Frontiers in Immunology, Oct 23, 2025)
Our findings indicate that SARS-CoV-2 reinfection is associated with impaired TCR diversity and distinct clonal expansion patterns, underscoring the role of T cell immunity in reinfection susceptibility. HC-enriched TCR clusters may represent protective memory responses, whereas RI-specific signatures suggest compromised immunity. These results offer valuable insights for vaccine design and risk stratification, though further functional validation of the identified TCRs is necessary.

TCR: T cell receptor
HC: healthy convalescent individuals
RI: reinfected individuals

Zdenek Vrozina on X, Oct 25, 2025
A new important study in Frontiers in Immunology shows that repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections are beginning to display the same patterns seen in chronic viral infections - narrowing of the T-cell repertoire, exhaustion, and loss of immune flexibility (!)

The immune repertoire doesn’t fully recover after infection. Diversity shrinks, and with reinfection the system no longer returns to balance.

The study analyzed T-cell receptors in people after a first infection and after reinfection with SARS-CoV-2.
The result?
Reinfection isn’t just another infection - it leaves a measurable imprint on the immune system.

T cells are the core of immune memory.
Each carries a unique receptor (TCR) that recognizes specific viral fragments.
The diversity of these receptors = the body’s ability to respond to new threats.

After infection, this diversity was significantly reduced - and didn’t recover after reinfection.
The immune system responded, but with a narrower library of T cells - less flexible, less precise.

Reinfected individuals showed higher antibody (IgG) levels,
but their T-cell repertoire was poorer and less stable.
Antibodies raise the alarm, T cells are the strike team - and that team is thinning out.

Each group showed a distinct TCR signature
primary infection - TRAV24/TRAJ42
reinfection - TRAV27/TRAJ42
healthy convalescents - TRAV35/TRAJ42
Same virus, different recognition routes - and not all lead to protection.

Healthy convalescents kept stable T-cell clones = lasting protection.
Reinfected patients lost these clones - their immune memory was rewritten and responded less effectively next time.

Loss of T-cell diversity means the body
recognizes fewer viral variants,
controls latent viruses (EBV, CMV) less well,
and is more prone to exhaustion or autoimmunity.

After one infection, recovery is possible.
But after three, four, or five covids, it may become cumulative immune wear and tear.
Each infection rewrites immune memory a bit more - reducing flexibility.

The study shows
Reinfections aren’t biologically neutral.
The T-cell repertoire can narrow permanently.
TCR diversity could serve as a biomarker of reinfection or long-COVID risk.

Zeng et al., Distinct characteristics of T-cell receptor repertoire associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. Frontiers in Immunology 2025.
Distinct characteristics of T cell receptor repertoire associated with the SARS-CoV-2 reinfection (Frontiers in Immunology, Oct 23, 2025)

https://t.co/xgrleX4kXy
What’s most concerning is that Zeng’s team isn’t describing a one-time effect, but a shift in the overall immune architecture - a gradual change in the immune resilience of the population itself.

There are more tweets in the thread.

 

[dann]

COVID-19 and statistics - Webinar:

Jeffrey S Morris on X, Oct 29, 2025
Abstract:
Observational data underpin many biomedical and public-health decisions, yet they are easy to misread, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes deliberately, especially in fast-moving, polarized environments during and after the pandemic. This talk uses concrete COVID-19 and vaccine-safety case studies to highlight foundational pitfalls: base-rate fallacy, Simpson’s paradox, post-hoc/time confounding, mismatched risk windows, differential follow-up, and biases driven by surveillance and health-care utilization.

Illustrative examples include:
1. Why a high share of hospitalized patients can be vaccinated even when vaccines remain highly effective.
2. Why higher crude death rates in some vaccinated cohorts do not imply vaccines cause deaths.
3. How policy shifts confound before/after claims (e.g., zero-COVID contexts such as Singapore), and how Hong Kong’s age-structured coverage can serve as a counterfactual lens to catch a glimpse of what might have occurred worldwide in 2021 if not for COVID-19 vaccines.
4. How misaligned case/control periods (e.g., a series of nine studies by RFK appointee David Geier) can manufacture spurious associations between vaccination and chronic disease.
5. Why apparent vaccine–cancer links can arise from screening patterns rather than biology.
I argue for greater engagement of statistical scientists and epidemiologists in high-stakes scientific communication.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Antivaxxers online don't usually do much more than posting 'It's the jab!' to any news mentioning the damage done by the infection itself, but occasionally somebody uses statistics to try to prove that the infection is good for you and damaged health and deaths are caused by the vaccines. It is usually limited to insisting on the post hoc fallacy (Wikipedia) while ignoring the C19 deaths that occurred in pre-vax 2020-2021 or ignoring that very old and frail people are more likely to be vaccinated than the young and healthy and thus more likely to die from causes that have nothing to do with the vaccine.

This webinar goes through some of the pitfalls that you may encounter in the argumentation of antivaxxers.

 

[dann]

thetranscendedman on X, Oct 30, 2025
At Strasbourg University Hospital, 332 COVID-19 patients were followed for 12 months.
Those who required ICU care had at least a 16-fold higher risk of major heart events like stroke and heart failure compared to patients in medical wards.

Long-term cardiovascular complications in COVID-19 survivors according to disease severity (Nature, Scientific Reports, Oct 29, 2025)
Abstract
Post-sepsis syndrome is a major concern affecting sepsis survivors. COVID-19 increases the risk of long-term complications, but existing data lack detail on patient-specific factors and long-term cardiovascular complications, namely major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Our objective was to analyze and compare the MACE occurrence, among COVID-19 survivors, according to the severity of infection. Adults aged ≥ 18 years infected during the first waves of COVID-19 pandemic hospitalized in Strasbourg University Hospital were included. Follow-up began immediately after COVID-19 diagnosis and continued for up to 12 months. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to balance baseline patient characteristics between the two groups (i.e. intensive care unit patients and medical ward patients). A total of 332 patients, i.e.132 in intensive care unit (ICU) and 200 in medical ward were included in the final analysis. The ICU population experienced a significantly higher risk of MACE during the first year (HR 16.2 [5.7–45.8] p < 0.001). Smoking status, history of peripheral arterial obstructive disease, and hospitalization in ICU remained independently associated with the occurrence of MACE in multivariable analysis. Severity of COVID-19 appears as an independent risk factor for MACE at one year among intensive care unit patients compared to those hospitalized in medical ward.

 

[dann]

Autism and the C19 vaccines (Spoiler: the antivaxxxers won't like it!)

Kids exposed to COVID in utero may be at higher risk for autism, other brain problems (CIDRAP, Oct 31, 2025)
A new study suggests that children of mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy are at 29% higher risk of neurodevelopmental conditions such as speech delays, motor disorders, and autism by age 3, although the overall odds are likely low and may well have ebbed since the pandemic peak.
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers analyzed data on 18,124 live births at Mass General Brigham from March 2020 through May 2021.
(...)
A total of 8% of uninfected women had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose during pregnancy, compared with 2% of their infected counterparts. Only 13 infections were identified in women who had received at least one dose. Of all infections, 65.0% occurred in the third trimester of pregnancy.

The study:
Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of 3-Year-Old Children Exposed to Maternal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection in Utero (Obstetrics & Gynecology, Oct 30, 2025)

Covid in pregnancy tied to autism, developmental issues, study says (WaPo, Oct 30, 2025)

 

[dann]

Updated Evidence for Covid-19, RSV, and Influenza Vaccines for 2025-2026 (New England Journal of Medicine, Oct 29, 2025)
Conclusions
Ongoing peer-reviewed evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of immunizations against Covid-19, RSV, and influenza during the 2025-2026 season.

Jonathan Howard on X, Nov 1, 2025
Since you’ve been telling people otherwise, just want to make sure you saw this @MartinKulldorff @DrJBhattacharya @DrMakaryFDA @VPrasadMDMPH.

 

[dann]

Harry Spoelstra on X, Nov 1, 2025
Persistent neurological sequelae in children and adolescents after SARS-CoV-2: a scoping review
An international scoping review(2020-2024) debunking AGAIN the “MILD” narrative!
“Results demonstrate a considerable burden of COVID-19-related persistent neurological signs/symptoms in children and adolescents.”
Thank you Governments/Healthcare organisations/Covididiots!!
Persistent neurological sequelae in children and adolescents after SARS-CoV-2: a scoping review (Springer Nature)

 

[dann]

Denis - The COVID Info Guy on X, Nov 2, 2025
"This Physicist Says We Don’t Take COVID Seriously Enough"
"We downplay the virus at our peril, warns Yaneer Bar-Yam. And children are more at risk than we thought."
Source: https://archive.li/Op73F

 

[Planigale]

Because physicists think they know everything!

Rocket scientists aren't brain surgeons.

 

[dann]

Yaneer Bar-Yam isn't just any old physicist!

Yaneer Bar-Yam ( Wikipedia)
Yaneer Bar-Yam (born 1959) is an American scientist and activist specializing in complex systems. An expert in the quantitative analysis of pandemics, he advised policy makers on the Western African Ebola virus epidemic and founded EndCoronavirus.org, a global network of several volunteers formed in February 2020 to provide information, guidelines, and policy advocacy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), an independent research institution that studies complex systems science and its real-world applications.

See also:
Yaneer Bar-Yam: Pandemic Research and Activism: COVID-19 (Wikipedia)

 

[dann]

tern on X, Nov 2, 2025
What would it look like in terms of damage to the penis, if covid infections caused microvascular injury, chronic inflammation and accelerated connective tissue ageing?

Hmm.
Maybe we’re already seeing it.

Induratio penis plastica, England.
Peyronie's disease.

More examples in the thread, and not just about erectile dysfunction.

 

[dann]

Pediatric Long COVID:

Long COVID is here to stay–even in children (The Lancet, Infectious Diseases - Sep 30, 2025)
Reinfection was associated with more (!) than double the risk of a long COViD diagnosis (relative risk 2^.08 [95% CI 1^.68–2^.59]). A wide range of related symptoms and conditions were also significantly more common after reinfection.
These findings reinforce an urgent message that children and adolescents can develop long COVID not only after an initial infection, but also after reinfection. The public health implications are substantial.

That was not the way it was supposed to work ...

 

[dann]

and Long COVID:

New Guidance on Cardiovascular Disease and COVID-19—From Infection to Long COVID to Vaccination (JAMA, Oct 24, 2025)
Vassilou: Long COVID, unfortunately, is common. It currently affects more than 100 million people globally, and somewhere in the region of 20 to 30 million people suffer from cardiac long COVID.
(...)
JAMA: Moving on to the long-term cardiovascular complications, which your group calls cardiac long COVID. Let’s talk about these complications.
Vassiliou: There is a plethora of conditions that can continue in the long-term after COVID, and what we see is people with myocarditis or pericarditis, heart failure, arrhythmias, coronary disease, and an autonomic dysfunction in the blood pressure—something called orthostatic intolerance. And what patients get as manifestations of these diseases is chest pain, breathlessness, palpitation—this feeling that the heart is going too fast or slow—dizziness, but sometimes something very nonspecific such as fatigue.

 

[dann]

Covid raises risk of heart issues in children more than vaccination (NewScientist, Nov 4, 2025))
The evidence that children were better off being vaccinated against covid-19 than getting infected by it during the pandemic just got even stronger. The largest-ever study, involving nearly 14 million children, has found that the risk of serious – but very rare – side effects involving the heart and blood vessels was much higher after infection than after vaccination.
For instance, among children aged between 5 and 18, there were more than 17 extra cases per 100,000 of inflammatory conditions such as Kawasaki disease in the six months after first getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, compared with other times. Among those who got the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine for the first time, there were nearly 2 fewer cases per 100,000.

 

[catsmate]

It's a single case report published as a letter in the Journal of Dermatological Science. As such it's a starting point for further investigation, not a tried and tested hypothesis. There's a potential association here but it needs further study.

This one? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12450757/