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founding
Jul 10, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent

This is really an excellent overview of the complexities of the immune system. Working in the field of HLA for nearly 25 years I had never actually considered that everyone (based on their HLA) basically presents specific antigens on the surface of their cells. This has got me thinking a lot about what the "vaccine" was hoping to accomplish - I find the cartoons describing what goes on when you are vaccinated with a mRNA shot rather cartoonish (I highly doubt a whole spike protein is gonna make it to the surface of the cell being that it is 3800bp long) - short peptides found in the cell are routinely presented by HLA antigens on the surface of nearly all cells (which are recognized by immune surveillance cells such as dendritic cells or NK cells - cell-mediated immunity is brilliant). I suppose if a vaccine infected cell was lysed then whole spike could get out of the cells. But it does make me wonder if everyone is creating antibodies to the mRNA generated spike according to their unique HLA. I am also wondering about the actual nature of the mRNA generated spike protein considering the use of pseudouridine and codon optimization (exactly how similar is this to an actual SARS-COV-2 spike) - what sort of studies were done to see if this is the case?

On a lighter note I did enjoy the supplemental material (footnote 16) since I was infected with the Wuhan strain and I do know my HLA type - seems I might have some pretty good antibodies (as I was exposed several times to people who were infected with Omicron, but I never got infected again - and I am forced to test every week for my job.)

And, one slight correction to footnote 13 - graft v host disease overwhelmingly refers to bone marrow transplantation and not organ transplants (it very rarely occurs, but when it does it is caused by blood products not being properly flushed from the organ - it's like an organ transplant with a side of bone marrow - the transplanted organ cannot hurt the recipient, but the recipient's immune system can definitely kill the organ - that is simply called graft rejection). Solid organ matching is not precise and many times it is solely based on unacceptable antigens (if they know your body will kill an organ, then you won't get it - otherwise you will be on immunosuppressive drugs for life). The problem with bone marrow transplants is that those cells will inhabit every part of your body and if those cells recognize your body as foreign they will attempt to destroy you - the good news is that immunosuppressive drugs can usually control this until your new bone marrow becomes tolerant of its new host.

It's all really awfully fascinating - I am never not in awe of the immune system! I just wish people would trust their immune systems - and perhaps treat it better! Thank you for delving into this topic!

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent

Great article. I suspect very strongly that our immune systems are still way too complex for the so called "immunology", and therefore "immunologists" cannot yet predict any outcomes that actually matter.

This is okay since science takes time to develop. But I am always suspicious of "immunologists" making sweeping pronouncements, because I suspect that they do not know enough.

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Jul 11, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent

Maybe I'm just stupid, but it doesn't seem like there's a clear delineation between the innate and adaptive immune systems. For example, IgA is often treated as part of the innate immune system, yet we develop antigen specific IgA antibodies after infection. Wouldn't that make it part of the adaptive immune system as well?

I had COVID-19 in January, my IgG Semi-quantitative S Protein test came back negative at the six week mark. I've been around a lot of covid positive people since then and I've remained healthy. It's pretty obvious that relying on blood markers is going to miss out on a lot of the immune activity occurring at the site of infection.

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Jul 10, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent

There was no pandemic- EVER.

Amidst all of your good work it is important to desist in furthering the lie that there ever was a pandemic.

“COVID” is a myth. Every time you repeat the term without challenging it at its basis you are helping to perpetuate the myth.

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deletedJul 10, 2022Liked by Modern Discontent
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