The Good News Thread

A precedent-setting study on natural immunity was published in Cell on July 14, 2021. The study finds that natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is comprehensive and durable, with persisting antibody responses, robust memory B cell recognition and T cell immunity. The study followed 254 covid patients for eight months and measured immune markers in their blood samples. The recovered patients included men and women who experienced a range of outcomes, from mild, moderate, and severe disease.

The researchers used cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and found that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes the immune system to generate poly-clonal, humoral and cellular immune responses that target multiple viral proteins while establishing long-term immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and a host of other coronaviruses.
T cell memory is comprehensive and promises future protection to coronavirus variants

After eight months, the CD4 and CD8 T cells were able to recognize distinct viral epitope regions and displayed durable, poly-functional immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and a host of other coronaviruses, namely HKU1 and OC43. The natural infection also boosts antibody titers to SARS-CoV-1. The CD4 T cells target the SARS-CoV-2 proteins equally, promising a comprehensive immune response. The CD8 T cells specifically target the nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, promising precision immune responses to future coronaviruses.

The neutralizing and binding antibodies that were detected post-infection exhibit a bi-phasic decay, with an extended half-life greater than 200 days. This indicates the development of longstanding plasma cells that can recognize and neutralize future SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins.

The researchers used the Mesoscale multiplex assay to measure IgG, IgA, and IgM antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The researchers measured binding antibodies to the full-length spike protein, to the receptor-binding domain (RBD), and to the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the spike protein. These results were compared to control blood samples, which were obtained from pre-pandemic individuals vaccinated with either yellow fever or influenza vaccines. The antibodies that bind to the spike RBD and NTD epitopes are able to block the SARS-Co-2 infection of the respiratory epithelial cells. These natural antibodies inhibit interactions between the viral spike and the ACE2 receptor. The IgG antibodies spiked by 92 percent in covid-19 convalescent recipients, when compared to the controls. The IgG response was robust after infection and predictably declined before stabilizing again, indicating long-living plasma cells that can convey immunity long into the future.
Full exposure and natural recovery are essential to public health

A natural infection also provides spike specific IgG+ memory B cells. These B cells persist eight months after infection recovery, providing a rapid antibody response if the individual is re-exposed to coronaviruses in the future.

Full exposure and natural immunity may be the most important concept going forward, for it sets up the immune system to adapt to future mutations (and laboratory changes) to coronavirus strains. During the study, the researchers accidentally found that the pre-pandemic healthy controls had long standing antibody responses to common endemic alpha and beta coronaviruses, reinforcing the importance of exposure and recovery.

The fear-driven, isolationist and intubation approach to public health will inevitably weaken and kill off the population. The plasma from healthy individuals will provide a significant immune boost to patients struggling with this infectious disease.

Durable immune memory is essential to prevent severe disease and protect against re-infection, yet the effective strategies for mounting a healthy immune response have been censored and suppressed by the mainstream government, media, and public health response.

There is NO moral, lawful or scientific reason to lock down, segregate, and kick unvaccinated people to the curb, for their immunity or impending immunity is essential to public health, a BENEFIT to all. Natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is durable, comprehensive, and promotes herd immunity, protecting the fragile and those with underlying health conditions.

The Covid-19 pandemic is over in Norway, according to one of the doctors leading the response against coronavirus in the rich Scandinavian country.

covid is over in norway declares national health chief

Preben Aavitsland, chief physician in the infection control division at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, tweeted on Sunday a graph showing Norway with its lowest level of hospital admissions since the end of last summer and wrote: “That is the pandemic over with.”

He added to newspaper VG: “Here in Norway, the pandemic is so to say over. We can start to prepare ourselves for corona taking very little space in our everyday lives.”

“A fire chief would have said: the forest fire is out, and the danger for people and buildings is over, but there remains a little clearing up here and there, and we need to be vigilant,” he told state broadcaster NRK.

According to National Institute of Public Health chief physician Preben Aavitsland, even with the Delta strain becoming dominant, the number of hospitalisations and deaths will not exceed that of last summer. He ventured that the virus “will not disappear” as such, but will instead become a “minor threat”.

Hospital admissions and deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic have plummeted in Norway over the summer. In July, there were only five deaths, and there are now 14 hospitalised patients throughout the country, the newspaper Nettavisen reported.

Estimates from Aavitsland indicated that the IFR (infection fatality rate), or the proportion who die as a result of infection, for COVID-19 was about 0.05 percent during the May – July period this year.

“In May, June and July, we had a total of 23,877 proven cases, of which 25 died,” Aavitsland told Nettavisen.

For the sake of comparison, IFR during a normal flu season is about 0.1, as calculated by pandemic researcher Svenn-Erik Mamelund at the University of Oslo. Citing uncertainty due to unreported numbers, Aavitsland instead cited a bracket between 0.05 and 0.2 percent.

Aavitsland said it would still take several years for the pandemic to come under control globally and added that Norwegian authorities would increasingly offer their expertise outside their home country. “It isn’t over until it’s over for everyone,” he added.

Earlier in June, Norway had announced that you are at a greater risk of dying from AstraZeneca vaccine branded as Covishield in India than from COVID-19.

While waiting for the final decision on the controversial vaccine, Norway had meanwhile decided to offload its stock of AstraZeneca to fellow Nordic countries that actually want to use them despite the associated risks.

It was Chief Norwegian Investigator and Physician Pal Andre Holme who first confirmed that it was indeed the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which caused the rare blood clots due to unexpected immune reaction.
Later, the European Union called for an Emergency Vaccine Summit after more than a dozen European nations decided to stop using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine due to serious blood clot incidents reported in many countries.