Study that shows COVID-19 antibodies rapidly decline has many concerned

[LiberalArkie]

In the Tuesday House hearing on the status of the COVID-19 crisis there were a few notes of “cautious optimism” sounded by Dr. Anthony Fauci around the possibility of a vaccine becoming available at the end of the year. But, when contrasted against the rising tide of cases across the South, that optimistic note seems a bit plaintive. Fauci was clear that, even as we talk about a vaccine, we still don’t understand how exactly how much those who have already had COVID-19 are protected against a reinfection of the disease. We don’t know which kind of antibodies provide protection. We don’t know what level of antibodies are effective. We don’t know how long this protection lasts.

It doesn’t seem surprising that, at the same hearing, a question came up based on a paper published a week ago in the science journal Nature. This paper, which contains evidence that antibodies to COVID-19 can fade over a short period of time, has raised fresh concerns over whether people can catch the disease repeatedly, and whether a vaccine is even possible. But a closer look shows that, while the paper does contain some bad news, it really has little to say about vaccines.

The paper in question comes from a group of Chinese researchers at Chongqing Medical University. They looked at a group of patients who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but never displayed any symptoms of COVID-19. These weren’t just patients who were pre-symptomatic—that is, in the early days of their infection with symptoms still to come—but asymptomatic over the course of their infection.

-Snip=

The last bit of bad news in the study has nothing to do with antibodies and everything to do with just what a rat bastard of a disease this really is. Even among the asymptomatic group, two-thirds of patients had signs of damage in one lung, one-third had signs of damage in both lungs. That’s everyone. Everyone who had COVID-19 in this study, even the ones who had no symptoms, displayed signs of damage in CT scans. There may be asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, but there don’t seem to be any really “mild” cases.



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/24/1955596/-Widely-cited-study-has-left-some-doubting-a-COVID-19-vaccine-is-possible-but-not-so-fast

[soothsayer]

1. Oh, the symptoms are just hidden

Asymptomatic really IS pre-symptomatic for this virus.

That’s because the virus does this really clever thing so you don’t realize your oxygen levels are way down, until suddenly you can’t breathe.

If you monitor your oxygen levels you can spot it, otherwise it’s a nasty surprise and sudden distress.

[soothsayer]

2. That's why "asymptomatic" people get lung damage

And why they have just as high a viral load as symptomatic.

Fauci was surprised by this. I should clue him in.

[LiberalArkie]

3. Everyone is surprised.. it is a novel virus

[soothsayer]

9. It's in the name!

Moose should have told you.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. So much for "herd immunity" if true.

That seemed like a pretty big assumption to me, when this all started. Time will tell.

And the damage to the survivors should be shouted to the world by Fauci and others.

Thanks for doing your part to share it.

[LiberalArkie]

6. The Chinese were saying early on that the only way to spot it in some people was a cat scan.

No symptoms, never any symptoms, no fever. But with their smog and air pollution, the people did not notice that they did not any oxygen.

I think it was in Italy that doctors noticing that people were on their phones talking away while their SpO2 monitors were screaming. But these were people who not asymptomatic.

So right now it is, if you get it - you will have some kind of organ damage.

And forget about the young having no problems.. 2 17 years old died this week in Florida.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

7. Yep, I was following it back then too.

I bought an SpO2 monitor in February, even before investigating masks.

Edit: It has remained in the 96% to 99% range for me, thankfully. Do a quick check every few days.

[soothsayer]

10. Ooh I want one!

Actually I might have a sports thingy that does that.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. They're not very expensive.

Some people on DU were having some trouble finding them at places like Amazon a few weeks ago, though. I haven't really looked into any scarcity of them yet.

[LiberalArkie]

17. Still extremely hard to find. I ordered 2 different ones from China at $50 each and one did not

work. The other gave a 98% no matter what.

I gave the one I had to a neighbor family since they turned positive and were locked down and told them to check everyone several times a day.

Everyone including the kids would hit the 92 but would creep back up later in the day.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. Oh, that stinks!

I just noticed that mine was made in China too!

It's a "Choicemmed" finger oximeter that received many good reviews at Amazon, so I went with it.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. Just checked: Lots of them are available...

... from Amazon (for example) with quick delivery estimates.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Maybe there will be questions on future insurance forms...

... such as: "Do you have Trump Lung?"

[Roland99]

8. We don't have enough test subjects for a study in the US??

Boggles my mind we keep seeing studies that refer to the virus in China (would could even be slightly different from the virus here)

[Initech]

11. Not with this group of imbeciles in charge.

As long as Trump is running things, you can forget about it.

[Roland99]

12. No research lab or university can take it on?

[Initech]

15. I'm sure they could, but you think Trump would want those results out there?

It might make him look bad!

[Roland99]

19. Still plenty working on vaccines. Seems a logical project to take on

[ProfessorGAC]

13. It Almost Certainly Is

Weeks ago the virologists id'd the mutations in the strain from Europe.
Also, yesterday I read antibodies for the common flu only last 6 months, but memory B cells were the real key.
The article doesn't mention whether they even tested for those.

[marie999]

18. My husband and I do the following when we wake up in the morning.

Take our temperature, take our blood pressure, use our pulse oximeters to test our blood O2 level and pulse, and count our respirations.

[ecstatic]

20. So the next question becomes: How will the lung damage affect our lives going forward?

Is there a way to repair the damage, through exercise, etc?

This is truly a nightmare we're in!

[Hortensis]

22. I'm definitely among the many concerned.

In the meantime, while we wait to see if an effective vaccine is developed, the longer those who will become ill are able to delay it, the more time to there'll have been to develop better treatments.

[GulfCoast66]

23. No doctor here. But studied this some in college.

I’m thinking this is normal anytime we beat off a disease. The antibodies decrease as they are no longer needed.

I had Chicken Pox when I was 5. A test might not find any antibodies in me to that disease. But they are there and I can’t get them again.

At least that’s what I learned in the 80’s. Test have probably gotten better since.

Being DU, I’m confident someone with better knowledge of this will be along to correct me if need be.