Viruses naturally attenuate towards becoming less lethal and more transmissible, that is how Pandemics like these end. I have naturally recovered, by you choosing to get this experimental treatment you are introducing evolutionary selective pressure for a more virulent pathogen with mechanisms for evading the human immune system. Your actions will proliferate variant strains and are extending this pandemic from this already endemic trajectory. Your decision to participate in these experimental trials will lead to a further postponement for me to return to work and is fortifies government over-reach that infringes upon my rights of freedom to travel and exist as a private citizen. You are complicit with manufacturing further risk to the 100+ Million fellow Americans who are naturally immune and hurt the efficacy of life-saving treatments such as monoclonal antibodies that have prevented thousands of deaths.
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Why not? Evolutionary theories still hold up here. People still spread, viruses that proliferate in the host will have adaptations (typically around the binding site) and those are the ones nature will select for. It reinforces the viruses ability to enter the cell. If those that are vaccinated have less severe cases the virus will need to become more virulent to induce coughing and transmission or will need to for alternative modes of transmission. Regardless for whether or not this creates ADE, pathogenic priming, or alternative binding sites it will result in a virus with an ever higher affinity for our receptor sites.
Is it possible to deliberately channel a new manufactured virulent variant (from the lab) through vaccinated people as vectors to the unvaccinated ?
That would be dasterdly!
Yes. You would just make sure the new pathogen is protected by the vaccine but not to those who have recovered or are naive. It would be difficult though and inefficient though. Those that are protected would likely have to be symptomatic to spread efficiently. They would be better off releasing a virus that flows through the unprotected but leaves the immunized untouched. This could also be done and would likely be done through bioweapons that aren't live viruses IMO. Think along the lines of Anthrax and the Anthrax vaccine but with something much more potent and water soluble or very well aerosolized. This I think is unlikely but I have been sketched out about these non discriminatory spike protein antibodies. A lot of their research has been around this including ACE2 Binding sites, it wouldn't be that hard to re-engineer Pathogens that utilize this same binding site to infect humans. This well refined binding sites is why this virus is stupid transmissible and the first reason I realized this virus didn't come from bats, very well adapted to humans on this protein and glycan envelopes.
Thanks, all of that description helps me understand the mechanisms better.
I looked into ACE2 receptors a lot last year. I was convinced at that stage that the virus was designed to infect people with high ACE2 receptor expression and that it would affect East Asians particularly badly. I figured it was engineered to do so. I don't think I was right. Children have fewer ACE2 receptors on their lung epithelia than adults IIRC. I suppose that's why they don't seem to catch the virus as easily as adults.
They likely are just more asymptomatic and for that reason are less likely to spread it. Because children spend a lot of time together and are less likely to get very sick and cough much its unlikely they spread to each other much and the difference in height, behavior, sharing makes them less likely to catch from adults and very unlikely to spread to adults. I think a lot of this has to do with vascularity, the virus sinks itself in and the cytokine inflammation follows(This is the phase people die) As we get older we create more and more blood vessels form. High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity etc signal via things like vascular endothelial growth factors to increase blood vessels throughout the body equals the more systemic infection and inflammation markers in vulnerable areas, particularly the lungs. Lots of correlation between smokers/nicotine users and reduced mortality. Nicotine helps saturate the ACE2 receptors and hence offers some protection. Smokers are actually more protected because it reduces the opportunistic cells for Covid-19 to infiltrate. There are a few smaller trials that show certain inhaled treatments of gasses seriously damped odds or severity of infection. It still blows my mind how long it took them to figure out that corticosteroids like prednisone would be helpful for this, via reducing inflammation. The use and persistence of respirator treatments seriously was so idiotic, with the right regiment and early treatment this virus isn't very lethal.
Well, when you put it like that!
I suppose that the virus becoming more virulent doesn't necessarily come with a corresponding fitness cost for that mutation.
I had it in my head that high virulence was unstable and that there was a selection pressure away from it towards transmission. But, yes, you are right, masking symptoms with vaccinations changes that selection pressure, possibly towards virulence to increase symptoms for transmission.
I get it a bit better now Thanks