3 ms·

It sounds like a good thing! Vaccines are made to target a specific or a specific set of pathogens. The background states that when you gain immunity to the t

It sounds like a good thing! Vaccines are made to target a specific or a specific set of pathogens. The background states that when you gain immunity to the target pathogens, that’s called “antigen-specific adaptive immunity.” When you gain immunity to pathogens similar to, but not, the target, that’s called “cross-protective immunity.” Sometimes, vaccines provide “beneficial off-target (heterologous) effects that alter immune responses to, and protect against, unrelated infections.” It has never been tested if mRNA vaccines also show a similar benefit. So the study has concluded that children who received the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine showed increased immune response to pathogens unrelated to COVID-19. Meaning that when children take this vaccine, they are less likely to die from other pathogens too! Which sounds pretty awesome.

cempaka 3y ago
You've misread (or not read) the study. "BNT162b2 vaccination is associated with a decrease in bacterial and viral stimulant-induced cytokine responses one month after vaccination." It is showing reduced immune response to other pathogens.
- dent9876543 3y ago
  I also think that's the intended interpretation (that it is showing reduced immune response to other pathogens). I think the linkage with the showing of /increased/ immune response to pathogens unrelated to COVID-19 traces to a finding that, post-vaccine, there is an immediate and general reduction in mortality. (I may have summarised that imprecisely.) The presumption in anti-covid-vaccine-mandate circles is that it is a confounding factor, and the result of biases in how populations are segmented. But the paper does highlight similar findings in the background ("In high-mortality settings, live-attenuated vaccines are associated with reductions in all-cause infant mortality greater than can be attributed to vaccine-specific protection alone (5–7)."), but it doesn't seem to revisit the topic. Which is a bummer. It would seem to be an important topic to address.
  - cempaka 3y ago
    Ah I see what you mean, but live-attenuated might be quite different from the mRNA vaccines. I wonder if the study authors at the outset expected the impact to be similar. What I find dismaying is that this tiny study is the first and only examination of the impact on broader immune response from the mRNA vaccines (at least, that I have been able to find) after millions of doses were already administered.
tempera 3y ago
Yeah, but they open themselves up to myocarditis so the risk far outweighs the benefit.

cempaka 3y ago

You've misread (or not read) the study. "BNT162b2 vaccination is associated with a decrease in bacterial and viral stimulant-induced cytokine responses one month after vaccination." It is showing reduced immune response to other pathogens.

dent9876543 3y ago
I also think that's the intended interpretation (that it is showing reduced immune response to other pathogens). I think the linkage with the showing of /increased/ immune response to pathogens unrelated to COVID-19 traces to a finding that, post-vaccine, there is an immediate and general reduction in mortality. (I may have summarised that imprecisely.) The presumption in anti-covid-vaccine-mandate circles is that it is a confounding factor, and the result of biases in how populations are segmented. But the paper does highlight similar findings in the background ("In high-mortality settings, live-attenuated vaccines are associated with reductions in all-cause infant mortality greater than can be attributed to vaccine-specific protection alone (5–7)."), but it doesn't seem to revisit the topic. Which is a bummer. It would seem to be an important topic to address.
- cempaka 3y ago
  Ah I see what you mean, but live-attenuated might be quite different from the mRNA vaccines. I wonder if the study authors at the outset expected the impact to be similar. What I find dismaying is that this tiny study is the first and only examination of the impact on broader immune response from the mRNA vaccines (at least, that I have been able to find) after millions of doses were already administered.

tempera 3y ago

Yeah, but they open themselves up to myocarditis so the risk far outweighs the benefit.