Coronavirus Information...who do you trust?

[Belsnickel]

So, I had my twice-a-year visit with my doctor, this morning, because of my diabetes and what not. The nurse doing the weight, BP, and all that was talking about the COVID mess. She told me she wasn't going to get vaccinated. She mentioned another nurse that got the vaccine and a week later tested positive for COVID. She said "what do they expect when you're putting the virus inside you?"

I didn't try to argue with her because I knew that wasn't a great idea, especially since she was going to be giving be a TDAP vaccine and a pneumonia vaccine, but this is where I get so concerned about the misinformation that is out there. As we've discussed in this thread, the COVID vaccines are not the typical dead/weakened virus types we are used to. They train the cells on what to look for, they don't introduce the virus to the immune system. And of course it is possible for someone that is immunized to be infected. One, the immunizations are not 100% effective, and two, both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require a second injection a couple of weeks after the initial one to reach the efficacy determined in the studies.

Anyway, just had to vent a little about that. On the pneumonia vaccine: it has been approved for people with T2 diabetes under 65. It is a good idea that if you fall into a group approved for the vaccine to go ahead and get it. It won't prevent the pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV2, but it will prevent the bacterial pneumonias from taking advantage of the situation and settling in to complicate matters. Also, there is a study that came out in November about the effects of the MMR vaccine on COVID patients. https://mbio.asm.org/content/11/6/e02628-20

The tl;dr version is that the more antibodies in you from the MMR vaccine, the lower likelihood of a severe case of a COVID infection. This isn't a causal finding and there is more research that could be needed to confirm these findings. However, on average a person's antibodies level for MMR drops below the threshold about 14 years after immunization. It isn't a terrible idea to get a booster just for the sake of MMR, but if it can reduce your chance of a serious infection then it's an added bonus. I will be getting a booster in a couple weeks once my immune system calms down from today.

Quote:ABSTRACT
The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has been theorized to provide protection against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Our aim was to determine whether any MMR IgG titers are inversely correlated with severity in recovered COVID-19 patients previously vaccinated with MMR II. We divided 80 subjects into two groups, comparing MMR titers to recent COVID-19 severity levels. The MMR II group consisted of 50 subjects who would primarily have MMR antibodies from the MMR II vaccine, and a comparison group of 30 subjects consisted of those who would primarily have MMR antibodies from sources other than MMR II, including prior measles, mumps, and/or rubella illnesses. There was a significant inverse correlation (rs = −0.71, P < 0.001) between mumps virus titers (mumps titers) and COVID-19 severity within the MMR II group. There were no significant correlations between mumps titers and severity in the comparison group, between mumps titers and age in the MMR II group, or between severity and measles or rubella titers in either group. Within the MMR II group, mumps titers of 134 to 300 arbitrary units (AU)/ml (n = 8) were found only in those who were functionally immune or asymptomatic; all with mild symptoms had mumps titers below 134 AU/ml (n = 17); all with moderate symptoms had mumps titers below 75 AU/ml (n = 11); all who had been hospitalized and had required oxygen had mumps titers below 32 AU/ml (n = 5). Our results demonstrate that there is a significant inverse correlation between mumps titers from MMR II and COVID-19 severity.

IMPORTANCE
COVID-19 has presented various paradoxes that, if understood better, may provide clues to controlling the pandemic, even before a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available. First, young children are largely spared from severe disease. Second, numerous countries have COVID-19 death rates that are as low as 1% of the death rates of other countries. Third, many people, despite prolonged close contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive, never test positive themselves. Fourth, nearly half of people who test positive for COVID-19 are asymptomatic. Some researchers have theorized that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine may be responsible for these disparities. The significance of our study is that it showed that mumps titers related to the MMR II vaccine are significantly and inversely correlated with the severity of COVID-19-related symptoms, supporting the theorized association between the MMR vaccine and COVID-19 severity.