Generally, IMAs are affected by specific endogenous antibodies (heterophile, autoantibodies, antinuclear or anti-animal) or exogenous administered antibodies (Ig-drugs) that interfere and give a falsely elevated result in one assay or a lower result in another assay, even in the same individual.
— from ‘False-negative and false-positive COVID-19 cases’, National Institutes of Health, April 2021.
You learn something new every day, my old fat dad used to say. Apparently, IMAs are affected by specific endogenous antibodies. Generally speaking. Or so the scientists tell us.
Although sometimes, like the rest of us, they see things from opposite ends of the park bench.
We would hope, almost two years after “a novel coronavirus was reported from a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China,” that we’d have a pretty good handle on the immunity question. But you learn something new every day, whether you want to or not.
Mostly, you learn that… we don’t really know anything.
From CBS News:
Unvaccinated people who had survived a previous COVID-19 infection were more than five times more likely to be reinfected with the virus compared to those who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So all you folks who caught COVID and recovered, you can stop thumbing your noses at the folks who got the vaccine. You have five times the chances of getting reinfected.
Or so the mainstream media tells us. Quoting real scientists, who analyzed the records of over 7,000 hospitalized patients.
Infect me once, shame on you. Infect me twice, shame on me. As my old fat dad used to say.
But a different recent study in Israel, by a different group of real scientists, analyzed about 16,000 medical records and came to a different statistical conclusion.
A very different conclusion.
Our analysis demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2-naïve vaccinees [vaccinated persons who had never suffered a natural infection] had a 13-fold increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected, when the first event — infection or vaccination — occurred during January and February of 2021. The increased risk was significant for a symptomatic disease as well.
So if you live in Israel, and are being studied by Israeli scientists, and you had a natural infection, it’s perfectly okay to thumb your nose at the vaccinated folks who never had a natural infection. Natural immunity rules… in Israel.
But if you live in the U.S. and are studied by American scientists, people who got vaccinated are much safer than those of you who had a natural infection. Artificial immunity kicks butt… in the U.S.
The takeaway:
If you’ve been vaccinated, you probably want to remain in the United States. Also, you will want to ignore any studies performed in Israel. Stick with CBS News.
If you’ve already had a natural infection, however, you are much safer in Israel. Like, 13 times safer. A quick check of plane flights from New York to Tel Aviv shows that the cheapest month to fly is November, when you can book a one-way ticket for as low as $478.
Quarantine is required in Israel, if you’re not also fully vaccinated. But the ticket price beats the cost of a hospital bed… by a long shot.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.