Recently, in the Weibo super talk "Justice's Sword Super Talk", a user who claimed to be "Doctor of Pharmacology" made a remark, saying that "as the virus mutates, vaccines cannot form an immune barrier at all." "Repeated vaccination can easily induce the ADE effect , and a super-large-scale serious infection or even death occurs. Every vaccination is equivalent to being poisoned once." The user also claimed that "there is traditional Chinese medicine that can prevent treatment", so "everyone should refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine."
I have to say that this doctor of pharmacology’s statement has no scientific basis. In the current epidemic situation, calling on the public to refuse vaccination is either stupid or bad.
First of all, among people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine in all countries, the infection rate, severe illness rate or mortality rate have been greatly reduced.
UK research found that after completing vaccination, the risk of infection with new crown is halved. A study released by Imperial College of Technology on August 4 showed that the risk of infection with the new coronavirus in people in England is reduced by about half. As of August 2, the vaccination rate in the United States reached 70%. Currently, almost all deaths and severe cases in the United States are concentrated in unvaccinated groups. The assessment of the CDC in the United States believes that within the United States, the probability of reinfection among people who have been fully vaccinated is very low, and the probability of reinfection is even lower. In China, the epidemic has been effectively controlled due to the active personal protection and vaccination of the whole people. According to the National Health Commission’s report on August 4, more than 1.7 billion doses of new crown vaccination were administered nationwide. Even in India, there is no evidence to support that medical staff who have been vaccinated are more likely to be infected than the general population who have not been vaccinated. In fact, the outbreak of the epidemic in India is mainly related to factors such as social control.
Secondly, deals with the rapid spread of delta mutant virus, and is still the best way to improve the vaccination rate.
So far, human vaccines and prevention and control strategies have not failed in the face of delta mutant virus. The new coronavirus has the characteristics of being prone to mutation. At present, the delta mutant strain is the most important strain of the global epidemic. Compared with the previous new coronavirus, it has the characteristics of faster transmission speed, higher viral load, shorter incubation period and longer treatment time. Recently, almost all domestic epidemics have been triggered by delta mutant strains.
At the Shanghai COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control press conference on August 4, Zhang Wenhong said: Since April, the delta mutant virus has gradually occupied the world. Although the number of cases has risen again, the mortality rate has declined sharply. After the rapid increase in delta cases, some countries have fully utilized the role of vaccines and prevention and control strategies, and the number of cases has once again dropped significantly. Judging from the current global epidemic, although the spread of delta cases has caused an increase in the number of breakthrough cases of infection after vaccination, the number of breakthrough cases is still a very small number of people who are vaccinated.
No vaccine can prevent infection by 100%, and the same is true for the new crown vaccine. However, large-scale clinical trials and real-world research data show that the new crown vaccine is still effective against the delta variant and can effectively reduce the severity and mortality rate. After the vaccination rate reaches a certain standard, an immune barrier can be formed.
Again, the frequency of the ADE effect of the new coronavirus is extremely low.
Recently, the ADE effect has been widely mentioned by self-media, causing public concern.
ADE (Antibody-dependent enhancement) refers to "antibody-dependent enhancement". Simply put, under normal circumstances, after a person is infected with the virus, as long as he is finally cured, the human immune system will produce antibodies to the virus. If the virus is infected again in the future, the antibodies in the human body can suppress the virus infection and achieve immunity. However, in some cases, such as if the virus mutates and the human body is infected with the virus again, the antibodies originally produced in the body will not work on the mutated virus. And at this time, the human immune system mistakenly believes that the virus has been "suppressed", which makes the immune system completely unprepared for mutated viruses.This will cause patients to be more severe and more susceptible to infection after being infected with the mutant virus than those without antibodies. Antibodies in the human body will instead assist mutant viruses to enter target cell , increasing the infection rate. The
ADE effect has been found in many viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles virus, feline abdomen virus (FIPV), and dengue virus . In the human coronavirus family, in vitro experiments, scientists also observed that SARS and MERS have ADE effects.
Current scientific research confirms that although the new coronavirus has an ADE effect in in vitro experiments, it does not support the induction of new coronavirus infection or vaccination induces ADE in vitro.
On May 25, 2021, Cell published a paper from Arase Naoshi, Osaka University, "An infection-enhancing site on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein targeted by antibodies". The paper explains that patients infected with the new coronavirus may experience antibody enhancement, and there is a potential ADE effect. However, researchers found that the frequency of this site that can induce ADE appears very low. The researchers believe there is no evidence that vaccination induces this type of antibody.
On June 18, 2021, the Cell journal published a research paper "In vitro and in vivo functions of SARS-CoV-2 infection-enhancing and neutralizing antibodies" by Duke University. This study shows that infection-enhancing antibodies can promote COVID-19 infection in vitro, but will not cause ADE effects in vivo. This conclusion provides strong support for the application of neutralizing antibodies and vaccine design, and also allows many people to be vaccinated with confidence.
To sum up, the delta mutant virus neither causes the vaccine to fail nor the ADE effect of vaccinated people or previous infected people. Although traditional Chinese medicine is one of the methods to treat COVID-19, it cannot prevent virus invasion. Only personal protection and vaccines in are the globally recognized means of virus prevention.
column editor: Mao Jinwei Text editor: Bai Lu Title picture source: Shangguan picture editor Photo editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Bai Lu Li Man
