[News] The Coronavirus Good News thread

[Postman Pat]

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Further suggestions that previous infections are providing some level of immunity.

 

[Mellotron]

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Further suggestions that previous infections are providing some level of immunity.

Chuck it on the now massive pile of evidence titled "T Cells are more important than antibodies".

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

[Tweet]1277338436878381063[/TWEET]

Further suggestions that previous infections are providing some level of immunity.

Chuck it on the now massive pile of evidence titled "T Cells are more important than antibodies".

Was just about to post the same article, fantastic news if it is borne out with time.

 

[LamieRobertson]

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Trend continues

 

[LamieRobertson]

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Ignore the comment complaining that the graph is showing a continued decline

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

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Ignore the comment complaining that the graph is showing a continued decline

Those comments are pretty funny in reply though. The idiot was well and truly owned.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Those comments are pretty funny in reply though. The idiot was well and truly owned.

..yes I added one myself

 

[wehatepalace]

Chuck it on the now massive pile of evidence titled "T Cells are more important than antibodies".

Was just about to post the same article, fantastic news if it is borne out with time.

Please excuse my lack of knowledge but in layman’s terms what does this mean ?
81% of people already had some kind of immunity even though they hadn’t previously contracted Covid ? Or have I got that completely wrong ?

 

[jakarta]

Can I divert You all to Crodos separate thread about some truly HEARTWARMING news about COVID?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Please excuse my lack of knowledge but in layman’s terms what does this mean ?
81% of people already had some kind of immunity even though they hadn’t previously contracted Covid ? Or have I got that completely wrong ?

In my completely layman's terms, it means that we, the population, have another form of defence against the disease, that is separate from antibodies. T cells act quickly against infection and would be, if I understand correctly, a line of first defence before antibodies come into play. The news is that a huge number of us may fight the disease off with existent T cells that are already primed due to prior exposure to different strains of the common cold.

In regard to the 81 percent figure, yes that is possible but as yet unproven.

 

[Poojah]

It’s encouraging to see the levels of new cases decline nationally, however when you break it down more locally it strikes me as quite remarkable how far we’ve come. Here’s an article from today covering the number of new cases in Yorkshire where I live;

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/fresh-cases-coronavirus-leeds-17-18510029

In a nutshell, 17 new cases. 17 cases in the UK’s biggest county, a county of more than 5m people and a higher population than Scotland.

In Leeds there were 2 more cases, following just 1 yesterday. That’s in a city of 750k people. There was a time, back in March, when I felt genuinely a little bit scared leaving my home with a feeling of being surrounded by this invisible threat. I’m wary of jinxing myself, but at those kinds of levels you really are unlucky if you happen to pick up the virus today.

There must be parts of the country now where the virus has all but gone. It’s not over, but it’s feeling closer and closer all the time.

 

[Mellotron]

In my completely layman's terms, it means that we, the population, have another form of defence against the disease, that is separate from antibodies. T cells act quickly against infection and would be, if I understand correctly, a line of first defence before antibodies come into play. The news is that a huge number of us may fight the disease off with existent T cells that are already primed due to prior exposure to different strains of the common cold.

In regard to the 81 percent figure, yes that is possible but as yet unproven.

It would go a long way to explaining why so many are completely asymptomatic.

 

[Yoda]

It’s encouraging to see the levels of new cases decline nationally, however when you break it down more locally it strikes me as quite remarkable how far we’ve come. Here’s an article from today covering the number of new cases in Yorkshire where I live;

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/fresh-cases-coronavirus-leeds-17-18510029

In a nutshell, 17 new cases. 17 cases in the UK’s biggest county, a county of more than 5m people and a higher population than Scotland.

In Leeds there were 2 more cases, following just 1 yesterday. That’s in a city of 750k people. There was a time, back in March, when I felt genuinely a little bit scared leaving my home with a feeling of being surrounded by this invisible threat. I’m wary of jinxing myself, but at those kinds of levels you really are unlucky if you happen to pick up the virus today.

There must be parts of the country now where the virus has all but gone. It’s not over, but it’s feeling closer and closer all the time.

I know what you mean, and I can only go on tier 1 samples when saying this, but West Sussex has only had 19 so in the entire month of June.

 

[The Wizard]

Of the deaths registered in Week 25, 783 (8.4%) involved COVID-19. This is the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last 12 weeks, deaths are also now below the normal deaths at this time of year.

 

[Mellotron]

*Dumps another on the pile*

For me it's the only way that the phenomena we're currently seeing in London and New York makes sense. Far more movement in places where it's incredibly hard to socially distance now, I just can't see any logical way there wouldn't be a significant uptick starting by now if only 5-15% were immune.

https://news.ki.se/immunity-to-covid-19-is-probably-higher-than-tests-have-shown

Immunity to COVID-19 is probably higher than tests have shown

New research from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that many people with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell-mediated immunity to the new coronavirus, even if they have not tested positively for antibodies. According to the researchers, this means that public immunity is probably higher than antibody tests suggest. The article is freely available on the bioRxiv server and has been submitted for publication in a scientific journal.

“T cells are a type of white blood cells that are specialised in recognising virus-infected cells, and are an essential part of the immune system,” says Marcus Buggert, assistant professor at the Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the paper’s main authors. “Advanced analyses have now enabled us to map in detail the T-cell response during and after a COVID-19 infection. Our results indicate that roughly twice as many people have developed T-cell immunity compared with those who we can detect antibodies in.”

In the present study, the researchers performed immunological analyses of samples from over 200 people, many of whom had mild or no symptoms of COVID-19. The study included inpatients at Karolinska University Hospital and other patients and their exposed asymptomatic family members who returned to Stockholm after holidaying in the Alps in March. Healthy blood donors who gave blood during 2020 and 2019 (control group) were also included.

T-cell immunity in asymptomatic individuals

Consultant Soo Aleman and her colleagues at Karolinska University Hospital’s infection clinic have monitored and tested patients and their families since the disease period.

“One interesting observation was that it wasn’t just individuals with verified COVID-19 who showed T-cell immunity but also many of their exposed asymptomatic family members,” says Soo Aleman. “Moreover, roughly 30 per cent of the blood donors who’d given blood in May 2020 had COVID-19-specific T cells, a figure that’s much higher than previous antibody tests have shown.”

The T-cell response was consistent with measurements taken after vaccination with approved vaccines for other viruses. Patients with severe COVID-19 often developed a strong T-cell response and an antibody response; in those with milder symptoms it was not always possible to detect an antibody response, but despite this many still showed a marked T-cell response.

Very good news from a public health perspective

“Our results indicate that public immunity to COVID-19 is probably significantly higher than antibody tests have suggested,” says Professor Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren at the Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and co-senior author. “If this is the case, it is of course very good news from a public health perspective.”

T-cell analyses are more complicated to perform than antibody tests and at present are therefore only done in specialised laboratories, such as that at the Center for Infectious Medicine at Karolinska Institutet.

“Larger and more longitudinal studies must now be done on both T cells and antibodies to understand how long-lasting the immunity is and how these different components of COVID-19 immunity are related,” says Marcus Buggert.

The results are so new that they have not yet undergone peer review ahead of publication in a scientific journal. Pending such review, the article has been published on a preprint server, bioRxiv (see box).

The study was financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Nordstjernan AB, the Swedish Research Council, Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Society for Medical Research, the Jeansson Foundations, the Åke Wiberg Foundation, the Swedish Society of Medicine, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, the Magnus Bergvall Foundation, the Hedlund Foundation, the Lars Hierta Foundation, the Swedish Physicians against AIDS foundation, the Jonas Söderquist Foundation, the Clas Groschinsky Memorial Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. The authors report no conflicts of interest or patents associated with the results of the study.

Publication

“Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19”
Takuya Sekine, André Perez-Potti, Olga Rivera-Ballesteros, Jean-Baptiste Gorin, Annika Olsson, Habiba Kamal, Sian Llewellyn-Lacey, David Wulliman, Tobias Kamann, Gordana Bogdanovic, Sandra Muschiol, Elin Folkesson, Olav Rooyackers, Lars I. Eriksson, Anders Sönnerborg, Tobias Allander, Jan Albert, Morten Nielsen, Kristoffer Strålin, Sara Gredmark-Russ, Niklas K. Björkström, Johan K. Sandberg, David A. Price, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Soo Aleman, Marcus Buggert, Karolinska COVID-19 Study Group.
bioRxiv, online 29 June 2020, doi: 10.1101/2020.06.29.174888

 

[blue-shifted]

Of the deaths registered in Week 25, 783 (8.4%) involved COVID-19. This is the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last 12 weeks, deaths are also now below the normal deaths at this time of year.

Because all the people who were going to die normally, died in the spring from Covid? Sort of good news in that it's further evidence that the virus is much more likely to hurry up the process for someone already old and frail rather than take someone who would otherwise have survived.

 

[LamieRobertson]

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[LamieRobertson]

Trend continues and gets reported but not focused on by MSM

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[dazzer6666]

Because all the people who were going to die normally, died in the spring from Covid? Sort of good news in that it's further evidence that the virus is much more likely to hurry up the process for someone already old and frail rather than take someone who would otherwise have survived.

That's been my take on it all along - a not insignificant % of Covid deaths would have happened anyway (caveat - I have no relevant qualifications, just been reading a lot). Would expect the 'average' no. of deaths (barring any further waves) to below normal for the rest of the year and the 'excess deaths' number (which would be the best measure of country 'performance') by year end will be well below what it is now.

 

[nickbrighton]

That's been my take on it all along - a not insignificant % of Covid deaths would have happened anyway (caveat - I have no relevant qualifications, just been reading a lot). Would expect the 'average' no. of deaths (barring any further waves) to below normal for the rest of the year and the 'excess deaths' number (which would be the best measure of country 'performance') by year end will be well below what it is now.

which is exactly why the authorities have said that now is not the time to have the reviews, inquiries, blame games etc until much later on, maybe not until next year when any winter resurgence and as you quite rightly point out deaths that sadly were effectively only hastened and not caused by Covid, have had time to work through the system. The true figures of deaths caused by Covid will probably never be known, as the knock on to other deaths from delayed ops, diagnosis, and people simply leaving it too late to get medical assistance can only ever at best be guesstimated.