It’s definitely true that preexisting immunity affects transmissibility; but I think the virus adapted for increased transmission in humans as well, eg the D614G mutation and increased binding to ACE receptor found in some variants. Really I think you to look at protein level, not the variant name

In Denmark they are still offered in 2 and 3 trimester as fare as I can read

Question is whether previous infections / vaccinations decreases this risk today. I am not saying I would risk it, but I am not sure the risk today is the same as in 2022 as most people have had multiple immunization events at this point

Wait what, so the universe a gigantic cell or what is going on here?

Thanks - and thanks for all the work you put into these posts 😀

Here’s a nice study looking at that exactly: www.nature.com/articles/s41....

It does indeed look like Shingrix have a similar effect: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Additionally, certain types of autoimmunity also seem to react less strongely to the Zostavax vaccine. E.g. SLE patients generate a lesser T cell response (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...). But really there does not seem to be much data around on this? 3/3

How certain are you that this is actually the case? I am asking because many autoimmune patients are presumably taking drugs that affect a vaccine-response negatively (B-celle depleting drugs, DMARDS, ect). Also, I assume many autoimmune patients are not allowed to use live-vaccines? 2/3

Congratulations on a very interesting and important paper. In your discussion concerning the mechanism, you examine VZV-independent effects. You have a section on autoimmunity, which sort of hinges on whether the vaccine elicits the same response in autoimmune patients as healthy individuals. 1/3

If we’re in the range of say 10.000 other solar systems - and they need to spend a few million year evolving into something that cares / is able to look/send signals, perhaps the numbers don’t stack up so high as Fermi predicted? 2/2

If we imagine other species have the same tech we currently have: how many solar-systems could realistically have spotted us or received radio-waves from earth? I guess my point is, isn’t the period in which we have made noise/generated a bio-signatur too small for that many systems to spot us? 1/2

Wup wup!

Thank you for writing this

Jeg tror mere min tanke er: nu er jeg jo lige sluppet af med en dårlig vane, så måske lige vent lidt inden man hopper i igen på en anden app

You must have picked the two scientific fields with the most elaborate nomenclature ever 😅

*Laughs in immunology*: you guys have it too easy, try coming up with new sub-celltype names every month or so. Who would have thought the immune system needed 100 different T cell types, but here we are

It IS a fantastic book! Happy new year 🎉🥳

BAFF/BAFF-R is really important for memory B cells it seems