4 ms·

To be a contrarian, wouldn't the best booster be a low dose of actual COVID-19 a few months after being vaccinated? This would give the individual natural immun

To be a contrarian, wouldn't the best booster be a low dose of actual COVID-19 a few months after being vaccinated? This would give the individual natural immunity to more antigen sites than just the spike protean. Having the vaccine and COVID-19 exposure would prevent a strong case of COVID-19 and give long lasting natural immunity.

ramesh31 5y ago
>Having the vaccine and COVID-19 exposure would prevent a strong case of COVID-19 and give long lasting natural immunity. No one's ever going to inject a live virus into themselves. Inoculation is effective but we've moved past the need for that with modern vaccines. The current thinking is that we will end up getting a "mRNA cocktail" of different variants, and that that will provide the broad spectrum immune response you're talking about.
- fasteddie31003 5y ago
  I'd probably get it but try promoting that "mRNA cocktail" to the average American.
- vibrato2 5y ago
  Live virus vaccines are actually a proven technology. I'd much sooner take a live virus than rushed to market mRNA technology. https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-live-virus-vaccine-200925 https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-live-virus-vaccine-...
- No1 5y ago
  > No one's ever going to inject a live virus into themselves. Ironically, that is exactly what people are doing when they get the J&J vaccine. At this point, I think that's 20 million people proving you wrong.
pfisherman 5y ago
No. Risk / benefit is not favorable. There is no scenario outside of biological warfare where you would want to intentionally spread a deadly respiratory virus.
randomopining 5y ago
Yeah i've been saying the same thing. Makes sense esp if you're younger.
Pyramus 5y ago
My understanding is that most virologists believe we will end up in an endemic situation so that is what is going to happen in the long run (the crux is how we get there). > natural immunity to more antigen sites than just the spike protean Current studies show that natural immunity does not seem to be superior to immunity from the mRNA vaccines (for immunologically naive persons) - so heuristically speaking it seems to be better to 'train' antibodies on one thing rather than several antigen sites at the same time (this may seem counter-intuitive at first but is in line with many other infectious diseases). However, once you have been vaccinated (or resp. have recovered from Covid-19) exposition to the virus (or resp. to the mRNA vaccines) will have additional benefits as you suggested!
- fasteddie31003 5y ago
  This study shows that natural immunity is better than the vaccines https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v...
  - Pyramus 5y ago
    Very interesting - thanks for posting! My knowledge was pre-Delta, and this study (in its current prepring form) suggests that for Delta, we have infection + mRNA vaccine > infection > mRNA vaccine. Upon quick screening the authors do not discuss survivorship bias - which I would have expected. Regarding what we discussed earlier the authors note: "The advantageous protection afforded by natural immunity that this analysis demonstrates could be explained by the more extensive immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 proteins than that generated by the anti-spike protein immune activation conferred by the vaccine. However, as a correlate of protection is yet to be proven, including the role of B-Cell and T-cell immunity, this remains a hypothesis."
  - druidsbane 5y ago
    One thing that stands out is that the group that has been previously infected (both unvaccinated and single-jabbed post-infection) has been selected for survival already. I personally wouldn't draw the conclusion they propose from that population.

ramesh31 5y ago

>Having the vaccine and COVID-19 exposure would prevent a strong case of COVID-19 and give long lasting natural immunity. No one's ever going to inject a live virus into themselves. Inoculation is effective but we've moved past the need for that with modern vaccines. The current thinking is that we will end up getting a "mRNA cocktail" of different variants, and that that will provide the broad spectrum immune response you're talking about.

fasteddie31003 5y ago
I'd probably get it but try promoting that "mRNA cocktail" to the average American.
vibrato2 5y ago
Live virus vaccines are actually a proven technology. I'd much sooner take a live virus than rushed to market mRNA technology. https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-live-virus-vaccine-200925 https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-a-live-virus-vaccine-...
No1 5y ago
> No one's ever going to inject a live virus into themselves. Ironically, that is exactly what people are doing when they get the J&J vaccine. At this point, I think that's 20 million people proving you wrong.

pfisherman 5y ago

No. Risk / benefit is not favorable. There is no scenario outside of biological warfare where you would want to intentionally spread a deadly respiratory virus.

randomopining 5y ago

Yeah i've been saying the same thing. Makes sense esp if you're younger.

Pyramus 5y ago

My understanding is that most virologists believe we will end up in an endemic situation so that is what is going to happen in the long run (the crux is how we get there). > natural immunity to more antigen sites than just the spike protean Current studies show that natural immunity does not seem to be superior to immunity from the mRNA vaccines (for immunologically naive persons) - so heuristically speaking it seems to be better to 'train' antibodies on one thing rather than several antigen sites at the same time (this may seem counter-intuitive at first but is in line with many other infectious diseases). However, once you have been vaccinated (or resp. have recovered from Covid-19) exposition to the virus (or resp. to the mRNA vaccines) will have additional benefits as you suggested!

fasteddie31003 5y ago
This study shows that natural immunity is better than the vaccines https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v...
- Pyramus 5y ago
  Very interesting - thanks for posting! My knowledge was pre-Delta, and this study (in its current prepring form) suggests that for Delta, we have infection + mRNA vaccine > infection > mRNA vaccine. Upon quick screening the authors do not discuss survivorship bias - which I would have expected. Regarding what we discussed earlier the authors note: "The advantageous protection afforded by natural immunity that this analysis demonstrates could be explained by the more extensive immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 proteins than that generated by the anti-spike protein immune activation conferred by the vaccine. However, as a correlate of protection is yet to be proven, including the role of B-Cell and T-cell immunity, this remains a hypothesis."
- druidsbane 5y ago
  One thing that stands out is that the group that has been previously infected (both unvaccinated and single-jabbed post-infection) has been selected for survival already. I personally wouldn't draw the conclusion they propose from that population.