Some days ago, I posted an article about how, after three and a half years, we finally succumbed to infection by the SARS-Cov-2, and how we recovered from it. I was annoyed that it finally got us given that we wear N95 masks in all indoor public spaces. I also wondered how serious the illness would have been had we not had the full complement of vaccinations, given that it was bad enough anyway1.
Some random gullible American named David Kent, apparently from Florida, opined that: “Masks don’t work and neither does the vax”. I simply replied “yes they do. Don’t be such a cooker”. His reply hilariously was: “no they don’t. If I took 4 measles vaccines and still got measles and could spread measles to others I would say it didn’t work”. He accompanied this with a link to an article from Murdoch’s New York Post written by a Fox News [sic] muppet, which stated that the wearing of face masks made ‘little to no difference’ in preventing the spread of Covid-192. This mask story was based on a meta-analysis published by the Cochrane Library. This drivel from the NY Post has been shown to be a misinterpretation of the results of the Cochrane study3.
Previous and subsequent research has shown that the virus is airborne and is transmitted mostly by aerosol rather than by droplets. In addition, P2 or N95/KN95 masks have been shown to significantly lower the odds of contracting the virus4-7. I suggested Kent could not be gullible enough to actually believe anything published in a Murdoch rag. I sent him a link to an article which showed that masks do indeed help prevent the spread of Covid-198. He replied stating that it was “They do nothing plus it can’t be good to breathe back into your lungs all that nasty,stale co2 yiu [sic] just exhaled”. This is a common refrain from the gullible. One could ask them how they survive inside during winter with all the windows closed. Then he came up with the classic line: “As it turns out all the “conspiracy theories” have come true although big tech tried to supress it.” You have to laugh.
As for his assertion that “…If I took 4 measles vaccines and still got measles and could spread measles to others I would say it didn’t work”. I replied telling him that is not how vaccines work and suggested he look it up on the web. This, of course would have been too much effort for him and given his lack of comprehension of some of the other things I told him, I expect he would not have understood much any way.
When pathogens (i.e. disease-causing organisms) enter your body, they start to reproduce. Your immune system recognises these pathogens as foreign invaders and responds by making proteins called antibodies. These antibodies’ first task is to help destroy the pathogens that are making you sick. However, they may not act fast enough to prevent you from becoming very sick, but by eliminating the pathogens, the antibodies help you to recover from the disease9.
The antibodies’ second task is to protect you from future infections. They remain in your bloodstream, and if the same pathogens ever try to infect you again, even after many years, the antibodies will again come to your defence. However, now that they have been ‘primed’ by the previous infection, they can destroy the pathogens before they have a chance to make you very sick. This is immunity. It is why most people get diseases like measles or chickenpox only once, even though they might be exposed many times during their lifetime9.
Vaccines are a way of priming your immune system without having to become sick initially.
Vaccines are made from the same pathogens (or parts of them) that cause the disease. For example, the polio vaccine is made from polio virus. However, in such vaccines the pathogens used have either been severely weakened or ‘killed’, such that they will not make you sick. Vaccines containing these weakened or killed pathogens are introduced into your body, usually by injection. Your immune system reacts to the vaccine in a similar way to what it would if it were being invaded by the pathogen — by making antibodies. The antibodies destroy the vaccine pathogen just as they would the disease pathogen, and they stay in your body giving you immunity, so that if you are ever exposed to the real pathogen, the antibodies are there to protect you and to stop you getting very sick9.
If this is the case, I hear you say, given that I have been vaccinated five times against Covid-19, then why did I get quite ill when I eventually contracted it?
This is because not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic or at least severe disease, but others almost completely stop you getting infected too. The latter is known as “sterilising immunity” in which the virus can’t gain much of a toehold in the body because the immune system stops the virus entering cells and replicating. A vaccine that “just” prevents disease might not stop you from transmitting the disease to others – even if you are asymptomatic. But a vaccine that provides sterilising immunity stops the virus in its tracks. In an ideal world, all vaccines would induce sterilising immunity. In reality, it is extremely difficult to produce vaccines that induce sterilising immunity and most vaccines that are routinely used today do not achieve this10.
So, when a cooker tells you that if you get Covid-19 then the vaccine doesn’t work, they are just flapping their jaw in almost complete ignorance; and often in wilful ignorance. It took me about 5 minutes to find out this stuff on the web, but so many people seem incapable of even making this effort. I often wonder how these buffoons manage to tie their shoelaces.
Sources
- https://blotreport.com/2023/08/12/in-the-clear/
- https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/face-masks-made-little-to-no-difference-in-preventing-covid-study/
- https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/scicheck-what-the-cochrane-review-says-about-masks-for-covid-19-and-what-it-doesnt/
- https://blotreport.com/2022/12/20/deranged-creighton-at-it-again/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/12/31/the-silly-coatsworth/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/07/07/airborne-transmission/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/04/05/face-masks/
- https://theconversation.com/yes-masks-reduce-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-despite-a-review-saying-they-dont-198992
- https://vaccineinformation.org/how-vaccines-work/
- https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-few-vaccines-prevent-infection-heres-why-thats-not-a-problem-152204
In the ‘short term’, it is not the SARS COV2 virus that will kill you. It is the bodies own immune system that does that. SARS COV2 invades a particular type of cell, AT2 & ACE2, found in most bodily organs incl the lungs. The immune system has not seen the particular virus before and so it ‘freaks out’ (a medical term i believe) and goes into overdrive, producing ‘kn loads & loads of killer white cells (”T cells), to attack any bodily cells potentially invaded by the virus. The result is massive inflammation, caused by the copious overload of killer T cells, and thus, in the lungs, it is this inflamation (& not the virus) that will kill one.
It is precisely this ‘FREAK OUT’ over response by the immune system that the vaccines are designed to prevent by making the immune system familiar with the virus and having a template ready.
The story is a tad different in the longer term.
That at least, is my understanding 🙂
I recall reading about an affliction caused by exposure Prairie Mouse urine, Hantavirus (or Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome) kills in a similar manner. The curious thing with this virus is that it only kills healthy people whose immune systems are on idle prior to exposure, whilst those active immune systems up and running due to something as inconsequential as the sniffles remain relatively unaffected. Funny innit?
Tis memories of this that elicited mild guffaws when folks announced they didn’t need the vaccine cos they were “healthy and had a strong immune system” .
Vamos Espana 🙂
Clive,
A similar thing seemed to happen with the second wave of the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’ (coincidentally); many of the people who died from it were fairly young (20s-30s) and healthy. It was only in the 1930s that they worked out it was from a virus (and not the bacteria which flooded the weakened lungs), and it was only found to be the H1N1 virus from a frozen corpse in about 2000. Spain 1: England 0.
England 3 Australia 1
Arthur,
Spain 1 : England 0
Admin, I am a lifelong sports addict, now aged 75, so let me clarify and supply some context for younger readers and the non-cognoscenti.
There are only two categories of sport. (a) The one that REALLY MATTERS (what the ignoranti often call soccer, a solecism beyond contempt, but which I prefer to call Proper Football); and (b) the rest, the stragglers, some of which may occasionally be briefly entertaining, but in the final analysis fail the test of REALLY MATTERing.
Prior to the recent Women’s World Cup, Australia had never played England at senior level in any sport which REALLY MATTERS in the context of a tournament that also REALLY MATTERS, owing to their geographical separation. At no REALLY MATTERING (i.e. Proper Football) World Cup, since its 1930 origin, had Australia played against England.
Many folk claim that Ashes series, Grand Slam tennis, Tour de France, Rugby World Cups and other clashes constitute Anglo-Australian sporting confrontations that REALLY MATTER. But objectively their claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. Only the world’s most popular sport, invented in England and donated free of charge to the world, REALLY MATTERS.
So, after about a century and a half of properly codified sport, at last Australia and England clashed in an encounter that REALLY MATTERED. The wait had been long and arduous, but in the end:
AUSTRALIA LOST.
The result in the final was irrelevant. I repeat the result that REALLY MATTERED, England 3, Australia 1. Good luck next time. I do hope it doesn’t take another 150 years to avenge.
If you are reduced to supporting “whoever England’s next opponent is”, I suggest you investigate Scottish citizenship (when their long-awaited independence eventually rolls around). It’s their favourite pastime.
Arthur,
No sport really matters. I swam competitively, and played soccer, squash and golf with mates, and also played cricket at both universities I attended. It was fun, but it didn’t matter beyond keeping fit and being with mates. I also like to watch sport, especially soccer and cricket. It is simply entertainment. If you are trying to upset me, you are wasting your time. I relay your outbursts to my partner and we have a good laugh. Is your problem that I can write over 1,000 essays in almost 7 years, while all you seem to be able to do now is snipe? Is that it?
“while all you seem to be able to do now is snipe? Is that it?”
As if the Blot Report is the only place on the Interweb where I write and/or comment. And as if the only comments I make in this forum are snipes. Oh dear, how narrow is some folks’ focus.
Was your “Spain 1 England 0” a snipe? If not, what was it?
You were happy to confirm that Spain won and England lost. But I notice that you don’t address my point: AUSTRALIA LOST – against England. Get over it.
Arthur,
I did get over it, the moment the game finished. I suspect that is what you do not understand. There are things about you I do not understand. For instance: your months of whining about the length of time the LNP were in power; such stuff just festers in your head and you cannot let it go. Yet when I gave examples of professional journalists who made the same approximation, you stated that you wouldn’t attack them because ‘they would ignore me’. As I have said before; that says much about you. Go and snipe somewhere else.