Repeated doses of mRNA vaccines bias the antibody response to an IgG4 subtype with a reduction in some effector functions. What does that actually mean for future #COVID19 vaccine policy?
Helpful commentary by the legendary Shiv Pallai: is it bad, is it good, or is IgG4 just misunderstood?
Thanks for sharing this! I have wondered about this, but hadn't seen it discussed much. Whenever that happens I just assume that not having a bio background has left me without some key knowledge and I wait for the more well versed amongst us to discuss it so I can learn.
Perhaps @fitterhappierAJ could weigh in?
To be clear, I didn't express concern, per se. I know there's this rush to defend vaccinations anytime anything even slightly negative is brought up, and so I don't generally mention the v-word at all. I do all of my COVID advocacy on that tightrope.
I'm honestly interested in the timing, and exactly this science, when multiple things are seemingly fairly clear:
We can't vaxx our way out of this alone.
The vaccines do work for lowering(not preventing...lets not start the whole vaxx and relax thing again) death and hospitalization.
Antibodies seem to wane far sooner than a year.
The administration wants to do yearly vaccines.
Science like this article discusses seems to indicate that vaccinating every few months, when antibodies wane, might not be the best idea.
There's seemingly a conundrum there that I'm not sure health policy has thought through just yet. I'm always open to new science and new trains of thought!
@BE That's fair - you did not 🙂
I think collectively we are still figuring out how best to deal with this disease in the longer term
Oh absolutely. There's virtually no way to know everything we need to know at this point. Science just doesn't work that way.
I just want to see the discussion had at each step, rather than trying to skip steps along the way. If that makes sense.
@BE @fitterhappierAJ I'm not sure if it's a cause for concern: it's just quite interesting immunologically.
All the clinical evidence shows that currently-available mRNA boosters are effective in preventing death and hospitalisation.
The suggestions in the article on ways to tweak boosters in the future look sensible.