I just discovered your (great) newsletter while searching for information on a vaccination-related matter on which you'd commented previously. I was wondering if you'd be able to provide an update of sorts, as well as comment on a related matter.
In your 11/18/20 issue, in response to a reader whose husband voiced concerns about mRNA technology, you mentioned that a somewhat less far-fetched concern would be that vaccination could generate an autoimmune response. I've seen these issue raised elsewhere here and there.
Do you view this problem as more, less, or about equally likely to occur as you did in November? Do you believe that we have seen signs of such reactions already, if they were going to occur? On a more theoretical level, are there reasons why we *wouldn't* expect such a reaction to occur, e.g., something distinctive about the vaccine-generated spike vs. the virus-generate spike? How worried should we be?
Similarly, an article appeared recently in the MDPI journal Vaccines (not to be confused the with Elsevier journal Vaccine) suggesting that signaling from the spike protein, via either infection or the vaccine, could lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension (see: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/1/36/htm), a frightening prospect. How seriously would you take these concerns? (The article has been gaining some traction on antivax-ish corners of the internet. The authors don't seem like cranks, though I know MDPI's peer review practices have been subject to some criticism.)
Virtually everyone I know is at least partially vaccinated, as am I. Reading these things after the fact has honestly made me start to panic a bit.
I'm jealous. They didn't give me a sticker at the Aqueduct. I'm only 4 days from my 2-week anniversary! Which is good, because business travel is a thing again, and Sunday I leave for Massachusetts.
Hi John,
I just discovered your (great) newsletter while searching for information on a vaccination-related matter on which you'd commented previously. I was wondering if you'd be able to provide an update of sorts, as well as comment on a related matter.
In your 11/18/20 issue, in response to a reader whose husband voiced concerns about mRNA technology, you mentioned that a somewhat less far-fetched concern would be that vaccination could generate an autoimmune response. I've seen these issue raised elsewhere here and there.
Do you view this problem as more, less, or about equally likely to occur as you did in November? Do you believe that we have seen signs of such reactions already, if they were going to occur? On a more theoretical level, are there reasons why we *wouldn't* expect such a reaction to occur, e.g., something distinctive about the vaccine-generated spike vs. the virus-generate spike? How worried should we be?
Similarly, an article appeared recently in the MDPI journal Vaccines (not to be confused the with Elsevier journal Vaccine) suggesting that signaling from the spike protein, via either infection or the vaccine, could lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension (see: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/1/36/htm), a frightening prospect. How seriously would you take these concerns? (The article has been gaining some traction on antivax-ish corners of the internet. The authors don't seem like cranks, though I know MDPI's peer review practices have been subject to some criticism.)
Virtually everyone I know is at least partially vaccinated, as am I. Reading these things after the fact has honestly made me start to panic a bit.
I'm jealous. They didn't give me a sticker at the Aqueduct. I'm only 4 days from my 2-week anniversary! Which is good, because business travel is a thing again, and Sunday I leave for Massachusetts.
"The thing about the J&J vaccination at this point, though, is that it’s not really central to the US strategy ..."
Apparently many Americans like it for the pure convenience of a single visit, and only one round of adverse effects (for those who have them).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-preference/2021/04/28/75ee6662-a770-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html