Understanding the nature of the potential harm helps us discern its risk.
While this article might fuel vaccine hesitancy in some, I hope it will mainly get dispelled instead. In a word, a possible biological explanation for how genetic (mRNA/DNA) vaccines might trigger platelet disorders every once in a blue moon has been proposed. Platelet is a blood component that clots blood in blood vessels.
This article will delve into the specifics and can be heavy to read, so if you have to skim through it, please at least read the last section.
Genetic vaccines and platelet disorders
Genetic vaccines include the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as the DNA vaccine from Oxford/AstraZeneca (Ox/AZ).
Read everything from Shin Jie Yong — and more.
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After 15 months of consistent scientific writing online, here’s what I’ve got to share
On 1st January 2020, I wrote and self-published my first blog article online. (It’s mediocre, obviously, so you might not want to read it.) After 15 months of consistent writing online, I’ve written about 200 articles and earned $20,000. The time went by quickly, but the experiences gained are lasting. I’m sharing them here because I hope they can benefit you too.
1. Measure your cumulative progress rather than your weekly or monthly performance
Your content views and earnings can fluctuate wildly due to various factors, many of which are outside of your control. Some months are simply disappointing. In December 2020, for example, my earnings fell by nearly $1000. …
A newsletter providing a brief account of the topics covered in the past month.
As global vaccination is going on, I hope all is good at your end. Without further ado, here’s a short account of the articles published this month in Microbial Instincts that I hope keeps you more scientifically informed:
Vaccines
- What I Saw and Didn’t See at a COVID Vaccination Clinic: Ryan P. Gilley, Ph.D., an infectious disease researcher, describes his inspiring experiences as a volunteer administering vaccines for Covid-19. While the media tends to cover vaccine skepticism and hesitancy, Dr. Gilley witnessed the opposite, writing that “I saw what “in this together” really looks like.”
- Concerns of Lipid Nanoparticle Carrying mRNA…
A new hint into the pandemic origin — with input from a professor — that we may need to think beyond Yunnan.
The search for an intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, has been disappointing. Animals like dogs, snakes, and turtles were suspected initially but were soon disproven. Then pangolins became the next suspect and remained unconfirmed to this day.
But what if there was no intermediate host involved all along? What if an intermediate host isn’t necessary for the evolution of SARS-CoV-2?
Coronavirus intermediate host in brief
When we discovered that a coronavirus, namely SARS-CoV-2, causes the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan (a city in China) in December 2019, we also know that it most likely came from bats. …
Detailing the arguments for and against this concern with input from experts.
We are all-in into vaccinating as many people as possible against Covid-19, with mRNA vaccines at the forefront. So, we might as well go all-in into understanding the little intricacies of how mRNA vaccine encapsulated by lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) might interact with delicate cell types — such as neurons in the brain — that a few experts have raised.
Before going further, the conclusion herein is that the actual risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection or Covid-19 largely outweighs the hypothetical risks of the LNP-encapsulated mRNA vaccine. But there are still a few concerns left unanswered, which deserve more transparency.
Current vaccines rely on spike protein
Wasn’t SARS-CoV-2 supposed to become less deadly as it evolves? After all, a dead host is a dead-end for viruses.
Author’s note: A few clarifications have been added at the end of this article.
About a week post-publication, about 250 news outlets have covered the new study showing that people infected with the B.1.1.7 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) strain — first discovered in the U.K. around Sept 2020 and has now spread to over 90 countries — are 64% more likely to die than those infected with prior strains or variants.
This probably comes as a surprise since many of us thought that SARS-CoV-2 would become milder over time. After all, as viruses couldn’t live without a host, a dead host is…
While it’s not the main route of transmission, it’s still possible.
Sometimes, coronavirus infection takes a person by surprise. A face mask is worn, and physical distance is kept, yet the laboratory test came back positive for SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of Covid-19.
How come? Investigations suggest maybe it’s the eyes left unprotected.
Last month, a research review titled “Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Through the Ocular Route” was published in the Clinical Ophthalmology journal, providing up-to-date information on coronavirus and the eyes. As the authors searched the literature until 23 October 2020 only, I’ll also provide additional input from more recent findings.
1. Receptor for entry
SARS-CoV-2 uses the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a…
A newsletter on the various topics covered this month, such as PCR test, vitamin D, evolution, long-COVID, and others.
As the world focuses on vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible, other topics may have been overlooked. So, this newsletter will provide a brief description of the articles Microbial Instincts or I have covered in Feb 2021. I couldn't find a suitable theme, but I hope you can find something informative in these somewhat random topics.
- A Lab Sped Up Coronavirus Evolution to Find What Mutation Might Emerge and Potential Drug: To see what future SARS-CoV-2 might look like, researchers accelerated its evolution in the lab. Initial results gave rise to the N501Y and E484K mutations, consistent with…
The sad thing is how shockingly little we know about myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
Roughly 70 outbreaks of myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) of unknown causes occurred in the 20th Century. One such instance was in 1955 in the U.K. Royal Free Hospital, where 255 medical workers were mysteriously hospitalized.
This event led Melvin Ramsay, M.A., M.D., to coin the term ME, which the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized as an official medical condition by 1969. In early 2000, ME was viewed as synonymous with CFS, so ME/CFS is now used to describe this condition.
A common trigger of ME/CFS is viral infections, of which Covid-19 comes into mind. While the survival…
Although the new trial finds no benefit, it still tells us important things about vitamin D and Covid-19.
Previously, two small randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have advocated vitamin D treatment for Covid-19, which I detailed here and here. But not every trial will show the same encouraging results, which is how things usually are. Even the FDA-approved remdesivir drug that inhibits coronavirus replication did not pass the W.H.O Solidarity trial and other trials.
Anyways, let’s see what another RCT —titled “Effect of a Single High Dose of Vitamin D3 on Hospital Length of Stay in Patients With Moderate to Severe COVID-19” published two days ago in the journal JAMA Network — has to say. …
