Spike up your life: Japanese study shows higher antibodies can be anti-body

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW) has given its rubber stamp of approval to the updated jabs.

So what evidence was this decision based on?

According to health ministry documents, the boosters contain a higher amount of neutralizing antibodies that suppress the movement of the BA.1 subvariant in the body compared with the vaccine for the original virus and are also believed to be effective against BA.5 and other subvariants that could develop in the future.

Higher antibodies, eh? I previously wrote about the Japanese media’s rather misleading reporting about how higher antibodies = better.

Anybody for antibodies? Japanese TV lamely attempts to flog boosters

Interestingly, Japanese researchers published a study in March showing that higher antibody titers can actually make things worse.

Study participants were 42 patients suffering from the following symptoms more than two months after testing positive for Covid: fever, malaise, dyspnea (shortness of breath), cough, taste abnormality, olfactory (sense of smell) abnormality, hair loss, sore throat, joint pain, numbness of limbs, muscle pain, headache, chest pain, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased motivation, sleeplessness, anxiety, depressed mood, forgetfulness, and skin symptoms.

Quite a list. I’m aware that the prevalence of long Covid has probably been overstated…

Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya

A huge new study (millions of people) from the UK measuring the incidence of long covid symptoms, published in Nature: ▶️5.4% in patients with a history of covid infection ▶️4.4% in comparator patients with no history of covid nature.com/articles/s4159…

…but some of these symptoms were most likely post-Covid sequelae. After all, post viral fatigue is nothing new.

The participants were given one dose (the paper doesn’t specify the manufacturer, but I assume it was Pfizer/BioNTech since their jab has been the most commonly used). They had their antibody titers measured and were surveyed about their symptoms before the jab and 14-20 days after. So how did they do?

Postvaccination symptoms (fatigue, joint pain, and taste and olfactory abnormalities) were relieved, worsened, and unchanged in 7 (16.7%), 9 (21.4%), and 26 (61.9%) patients, respectively. Ratios of pre- and postvaccination antibody titers were 53, 40, and 174 in the unchanged, relief, and worsened groups, respectively. The worsened group had the significantly highest antibody titer ratio (p = 0.02).

This figure shows the among-three group (unchanged, relief, and worsened) comparisons of antibody titers before and after vaccination. The ratios of pre- and postvaccination antibody titers show no significant differences (Kruskal–Wallis test; p = 0.06). The worsened group shows a significantly higher antibody titer ratio than the non-worsened group (Mann–Whitney test; p = 0.02). SIgG, anti-spike RBD IgG

So higher numbers of anti-spike antibodies were related to worsened symptoms, particularly fatigue (4 cases) and joint pain (2 cases). What explains these results?

The higher increased rate of the antibody titer in the worsened group than in the nonworsened group suggests that an excessive immune response to vaccination may be associated with worsening of sequelae. Numerous autoantibodies are produced after COVID-19 infection and cause various symptoms17; moreover, immune disorders are associated with the pathophysiology of sequelae.18

In case an immune overreaction to vaccination worsens the sequelae, the sequelae may result from an immune disorder.

So long Covid may be caused by an immune disorder that the jab may worsen. Well, that settles it, doesn’t it? What possible justification can there be for jabbing people who (1) have already had Covid and (2) stand a higher chance of having their sequelae worsened than relieved? Well, the justification is, as fellow substacker Ashmedai puts it, “an institutionalized medical community culture heavily in favor of indiscriminate mass vaccination.” The authors thus conclude:

Unvaccinated patients with Long COVID should be vaccinated to prevent reinfection. However, if the sequelae symptoms worsen after the first vaccination, the second or third vaccination should not be coercively administered.

You knew they were going to recommend vaccination come what may, didn’t you? After all, preventing infections is the be-all and end-all of existence. But they take the relatively moderate position that if patients become sicker after the first shot, they can skip the rest. How caring!

But one problem with this position is that the jabs don’t prevent reinfections; they increase them. For example, a recent study in the NEJM found vaccine effectiveness for 5-11 year olds in the US turned negative after 18-20 weeks regardless of prior infection.

Previously infected unnvaccinated kids, on the other hand, were much better protected by their robust and lasting natural immunity.

So more jabs and more antibodies are problems, not solutions.

But all the data above are for the legacy jabs. What about the new ones?

Making Waves @MakingC19Waves

Japanese reporter getting the updated 💉: “Will I have a severe reaction?” NYC nurse: “Nobody knows because they just brought it out.” Safe!

まったま @xjR1BqbrppuegLj

•NYにて新2価💉を薬局で打ってもらった •副反応は？の質問に「誰もわからない」 •15分〜30分の経過観察もなし 健康被害は一部の方に起こるだけで、その方の今後の生活や、どんな思いをするかは、既にNYでは考えてないようです https://t.co/gDHm3EulAT https://t.co/avepJ0HVKD

Let’s remind ourselves what the MHLW said.

According to health ministry documents, the boosters contain a higher amount of neutralizing antibodies that suppress the movement of the BA.1 subvariant in the body compared with the vaccine for the original virus and are also believed to be effective against BA.5 and other subvariants that could develop in the future.

If the jabs can be believed to be effective, they can be believed to be safe too. Faith-based science!