Category: Vaccine

Jeremy Faust is editor-in-chief of , an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and a public health researcher. He is author of the Substack column Inside Medicine. Follow

Emily Hutto is an Associate Video Producer & Editor for MedPage Today. She is based in Manhattan.

In part 1 of this exclusive video interview, MedPage Today editor-in-chief Jeremy Faust, MD, and Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, discuss the science of vaccines, the future of COVID, and the politics of the anti-vax movement.

The following is a transcript of their remarks:

Faust: Hello, Jeremy Faust, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today.

We are joined today by Dr. Paul Offit. Dr. Offit is a professor of pediatrics at CHOP, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine and he serves on the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee for the FDA. His new book is entitled, Tell Me When It's Over: An Insider's Guide to Deciphering COVID Myths and Navigating Our Post Pandemic World.

Dr. Paul Offit, thank you for joining us.

Offit: Thank you.

Faust: Let's start with the conversation about vaccines and science, and then we'll go over to some public health issues that you talk about in the book.

The first thing I'd like you to help people understand is actually a biological thing that you talked about in the book, which is that there's a difference regarding whether a virus can be eradicated depending on its incubation period. Can you just explain that for people who either didn't go to med school or who went to med school a while ago?

Offit: Sure. So if you take a virus that has a long incubation period, like measles for example, if you're vaccinated or naturally infected, you'll develop antibodies in your bloodstream which will protect you against mild disease for 3 to 6 months until those antibodies start to come down. But you'll also develop memory cells, memory B cells, memory T helper cells, memory cytotoxic T cells, which are generally long-lived and sometimes lifelong.

For a long incubation period disease where it takes 10 days, 14 days to first develop symptoms, you actually don't need antibodies in the circulation, you just need memory cells that can then, in the case of B cells, make antibodies. That, usually, is plenty of time when you have a long incubation period to activate those cells, to get them to differentiate in the case of B cells make antibodies to prevent even mild disease.

So for that kind of disease, you can actually eliminate it from the face of the Earth. Smallpox is a long incubation period disease and so we've eliminated it. Polio, we're getting close to eliminating it -- another long incubation period disease. And measles, we eliminated measles from the United States in 2000. It's come back in large part because of falling immunization rates, but that's that.

For short incubation period diseases like SARS-CoV-2 or influenza or respiratory syncytial virus or rotavirus, there what you can do is when you immunize, you can induce antibodies, which will then protect you against mild disease for a while. You'll also induce these memory cells, which will protect you against severe disease because it takes a while to develop severe disease. But, you're not going to be protected against mild disease for long.

I was fortunate enough to be part of a team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that created the rotavirus vaccine. Rotaviruses don't really evolve away from protection induced by vaccination or natural infection. All viruses mutate, but they don't really evolve away from recognition by antibodies induced by vaccination or natural infection.

So what we've done with that disease is essentially we've eliminated hospitalizations in this country, but the virus still circulates. That virus doesn't create variants. It still circulates in the community, and it still causes mild disease, you probably have 95% immunization rates.

Even if 100% of people in the world were vaccinated against COVID and the virus didn't mutate or didn't evolve, you still would see that virus circulating because it's a short incubation period disease. You're going to get mild disease again and again and again. We never made that clear early in this pandemic.

Faust: In terms of this virus, I struggle with whether or not I should or we should be thinking about it as a garden variety coronavirus that just happens to be new and happens to be worse prior to immunity. Is that how you think about it? And if so, what's going on with the seasonality? Because clearly every year now we see a peak in the winter months, but unlike some of these other viruses -- as you say in the book -- it doesn't just go away in the summer.

Offit: Right. So there are four strains of circulating so-called human coronaviruses, and for the most part they're winter diseases. We'll see them in our hospital accounting for maybe 10% to 15% of children who are hospitalized with respiratory symptoms.

One of those viruses entered the human population in the late 1700s, another of those viruses entered the human population in the late 1800s. So I think it's fair to assume that this virus, SARS-CoV-2, will be with us for decades, if not longer.

Will it, as you argue, will it sort of settle into a seasonal pattern as these others did and become primarily a winter respiratory virus -- join the pantheon of winter respiratory viruses, like not only the human coronaviruses, but influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus, etc? We'll see.

It hasn't clearly defined itself as a seasonality yet, but if you had to make a guess -- and you should never make a guess about this virus because you're always wrong -- I would say that it probably would settle into being a winter virus.

Faust: Alright. Let's talk a little bit about vaccine politics. The anti-vaccine movement has been with us for a long time, but it seems to me that in the past decade or two, it made a shift from primarily being a feature of the fringe left to actually going to the other side. For example, in terms of religious exemptions to other vaccines, only two states, I believe you said, had said no religious exemption, and it was Mississippi and West Virginia.

So in fact, I used to think of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaxxing as from my original neck of the woods, the Bay Area, these crunchy liberals who believe in natural stuff. Now, it's sort of gone the other way. What happened there?

Offit: I think there's never been a politics to the anti-vaccine movement. I think on the left it was, as you note, this sort of all-natural "don't inject me with anything with a chemical name." And that outbreak of measles in Southern California in 2014-2015 that spread to 25 states, that was a phenomenon of the left, if you will. There has always been this sort of libertarian "government off my back; don't tell me what to do." But you're right -- it has swung wildly to the right.

The anti-vaccine movement has never been better funded. There was recently an article in the Washington Post talking about how much money has poured into the coffers of groups like RFK [Robert F. Kennedy] Jr.'s Children's Health Defense or Del Bigtree's Informed Consent Action Network. They are better funded than they've ever been. They're certainly far better funded than the people who are trying to communicate facts about vaccine safety and efficacy.

It's a tough time, and you're seeing a real pushback against the kind of weapons that are needed in public health, whether it's isolation or quarantine or vaccines or masking. In some ways, I think we may be less prepared for the next pandemic than we were for this one.

Faust: You also write about Dr. Ala Stanford, who is a really perfect embodiment of another thing that happened in the pandemic, which is that the Black population initially [had] a little bit of hesitancy around the vaccine, but due to efforts like Dr. Stanford's, actually the opposite happened: you have a huge interest in the Black community. There's a trust there that I think might be a win.

So do you think that that's what's happened here? That because this virus hit Black communities and other communities of color so hard, the vaccine was seen as something to be lauded and accepted, rather than a continuation of like prior suspicion about medical research and all of the earned baggage there?

Offit: I think she was one of the bright and shining lights that occurred during this pandemic. I have known Ala for a little while and just feel honored to know her. She's a hero to me.

So here's a woman, an African American surgeon at Temple University, who really took it upon herself to form something called the Black Doctors COVID Consortium with her own money. She then went into North Philadelphia, primarily a Black and brown community, and sat in people's living rooms and just tried to explain to them why it was important for them to get a vaccine. And if they said no, she would come back. And if she said they said no again, she would still come back. She got 50,000 people in that community to be vaccinated.

There should be a thousand Ala Stanfords, because I think if we're going to really combat this misinformation and disinformation, I think it has to occur at that level. I don't think it can really be at the federal level or the state level. I think it has to be at the local level, so you go into an ultra orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and explain why it's important to be vaccinated or a Somali American population in Hennepin County, Minnesota and explain why it's important to be vaccinated. But you have to find out who the people are that they trust, because I think there's been an enormous loss of trust during this pandemic.

More here:

Opinion | Paul Offit on Vaccine Science, COVID's Future, and the Anti-Vax Movement - Medpage Today

Leana S. Wens March 6 op-ed, Florida finds the wrong medicine to fight measles, is absolutely correct in describing measles as highly contagious. In my experience, that disease and the others prevented by the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is also cruel.

In 1972, I was hired as a teachers aide at the Maryland School for the Deaf. The school was in great need of assistants due to the rubella bulge of new students into the elementary school grades.

Those children might have been infected when their mothers were exposed to rubella while pregnant. The consequences to a developing baby are serious and can be life-altering. Deafness is a possibility, as are impaired vision, heart murmurs and other attacks on the developing child.

I worked in a very full classroom of new students who were living at just 5 or 6 old in a residential school. Because my students were deaf, most arrived with a natural delay in language development. We could teach them English and American Sign Language and provide special attention. On the weekends the children boarded the bus and went home. The school also had a grant to support staff traveling to parts of the state to teach parents and other adults how to communicate with their children. It was a band-aid for many young families.

It is fortunate that children with similar disabilities are now more likely to attend schools in their communities and that they and their families can receive support closer to home. But rather than rejecting the MMR vaccine and risking the preventable deafness or blindness I witnessed, I hope everyone will embrace this protection for themselves, their families and even strangers.

Nancy Connors, Chevy Chase

Read the rest here:

Opinion | Measles is contagious and cruel - The Washington Post - The Washington Post

Local health officials say a steady rise in exemptions from required childhood vaccinations, coupled with misinformation on their safety, is contributing to a concerning trend of fewer kids getting fully vaccinated.

While state data shows that nearly all local school-aged children have received the vaccines required to attend school or licensed child care centers, the small number with exemptions based on religious and personal conviction objections has been growing steadily for years.

Health officials from the local to the federal level have made it clear for decades that childhood vaccinations are safe and effective, but some parents remain wary as exemption numbers continue to climb. And health officials say the COVID-19 pandemic only made misinformation about vaccinations more prevalent, further pushing hesitant parents away.

Still, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that vaccines are tested and evaluated rigorously before they are approved for use to ensure they are as safe as possible. Vaccines are the best way to protect against serious diseases, the CDC states.

Allie White, executive director of the Dubuque County Public Health Department, said the upward trend of vaccine exemptions is concerning, though most kids still are getting their shots.

From a public health perspective, this increase that were seeing is definitely a cause for concern, she said. Were worried about the number of unvaccinated individuals and that it continues to trend upwards.

Exemption numbers increasingWhile the number of Iowa students with vaccine exemptions based on religious objections remains small, it has crept upward in recent years.

For the 2023-2024 school year, 3% of students in Iowa have religious exemptions from receiving at least one required vaccination, up from 2.6% in the 2022-2023 school year and 1.3% in the 2015-2016 school year, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

In Dubuque County, 3.1% of students have religious exemptions in the current school year, compared to 3.6% in Clayton County, 2.1% in Delaware County and 2.8% in Jackson County.

That is an increase from the previous year, when the exemption rate was 2.7% in Dubuque County, 3.4% in Clayton County and 1.5% in Delaware County, though Jackson County saw no change in its rate. In the 2021-2022 school year, 2.3% of students had religious exemptions in Dubuque County, while the rate was 3.5% in Clayton County, 1.4% in Delaware County and 3% in Jackson County.

Hannah Porcic, lead nurse for Dubuque Community Schools, said the district hasnt seen an increase that would rise to a concerning level. District data shows that the percentage of students with religious exemptions increased from 2.03% in the 2018-2019 school year to 3.12% in the current school year.

A lot of times, its just helping educate them on the law requirements and guiding them to resources, Porcic said. I think parents just make the best choice that they feel is best for their family, and sometimes thats a medical or religious exemption.

Porcic said district nurses work with families to answer questions about vaccinations, help them understand their options and learn what is required by state law. Whether families need access to insurance, providers or exemption forms, nurses provide them with the information they need.

Laura Ryan, Western Dubuque Community School District lead nurse, wrote in an email to the Telegraph Herald that the district hasnt seen a noticeable increase in vaccine exemptions during the past few years. However, she said the district may see more of the effects of vaccine hesitancy as babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic start to enter school.

Deangela Brooks, of Dubuque, has four children and another on the way. She said she didnt really consider whether or not to vaccinate her children and that she did what was recommended by health care professionals during her pregnancies.

My (OB/GYN) recommended it, just for the safety of the baby when they were born, she said.

Religious conviction?Parents in Iowa and Illinois can pursue vaccine exemptions on either religious or medical grounds.

In both states, the medical exemption form requires a health care providers signature attesting that the relevant vaccines would harm the health of the child.

In Illinois, the religious exemption form requires a health care providers signature and requires parents to disclose which vaccines they want their child to be exempt from and the religious grounds for the request. Iowas religious exemption form only requires a notary and parent signatures agreeing that the immunization conflicts with a genuine and sincere religious belief and that the belief is in fact religious, and not based merely on philosophical, scientific, moral, personal or medical opposition to immunizations.

In addition to medical and religious exemption options, parents in Wisconsin also can receive a waiver from vaccine requirements based on personal conviction.

White, who worked as a school nurse before taking on her current role, said in her experience, most families who pursue a religious exemption actually just have a personal preference. She also said some parents might pursue an exemption because it is difficult for them to get transportation to vaccine appointments.

Unfortunately, sometimes its easier for a parent or caregiver to get an exemption form signed and notarized than it is to actually get them to receive the vaccine, she said. Sometimes I do believe that to be a barrier, as well.

Mary Rose Corrigan, city of Dubuque public health director, said that decades ago, parents had to cite a religion and the specific doctrine in that religion informing their beliefs against vaccinations, though that no longer is the case.

A person doesnt really have to be following a specific religion in order to have a religious exemption, she said. Its more of a philosophical viewpoint in some cases.

Other schools exemptionsVaccine exemption rates vary in southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois, with Wisconsin schools seeing higher rates generally.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the percentage of students with religious waivers has remained similar over time, but the percentage of students with a personal conviction waiver increased from 1.2% in the 1997-1998 school year to 5% in the 2022-2023 school year.

For the 2022-2023 school year, 3% of students in Southwestern Wisconsin School District had a personal conviction waiver. Cuba City School District also had a 3% waiver rate, Platteville School District had 8%, Potosi School District had 6%, Lancaster Community School District had 5%, Darlington Community School District had 4% and Benton School District had 4%.

Jeff Kindrai, director of the Grant County Health Department, said the county did see a drop in the number of children ages 2 and younger who are up to date of their required vaccinations during the pandemic, though the numbers have gone back up to 57% in 2023. However, he said it isnt uncommon for surrounding counties to have immunization numbers much higher than that.

Since the pandemic, we have not gone in the direction weve wanted to see, he said.

Kindrai said that trend is concerning because some vaccine-preventable diseases are extremely contagious, making the area more susceptible to an outbreak if vaccination levels are lower.

Most vaccine hesitancy is based on misinformation, he said, so the department works to get accurate information and opportunities to people who need them.

In Illinois, the Galena and East Dubuque school districts reported fewer than 10 students with religious exemptions at each of their schools in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Galena school district nurse Emily Rigopoulos said the vaccine compliance rate is high for Galena and that there are typically 5 to 10 students in the entire district with religious exemptions, out of a district population that last fall was more than 800. She said that number has stayed consistent since she began working there in 2020.

However, she said she has seen an increase in parents reaching out and asking for more information on vaccinations since the COVID-19 pandemic.

I think its just more they want to be informed of what their child actually needs and whats required of them, she said. They do end up getting vaccinated, and I havent really had a lot of pushback, thankfully.

Lori Stangl, director of clinical services for the Jo Daviess County Health Department, said her department hasnt seen much hesitation when it comes to routine childhood vaccinations, but the county continues to see low COVID-19 vaccination rates.

I think most people, we give them all of the vaccine information statements prior to them receiving it, and its well received, she said. Theres not a lot of people having too many questions or doubts with vaccines any more than was prior to (COVID-19.)

Pandemics rolePublic health officials said a rise in misinformation about the safety of vaccines that spread on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic only has hindered attempts to get hesitant parents on board with getting kids their shots.

The CDC notes that beliefs that the COVID-19 vaccine gives the recipient the virus, affects fertility or contains unsafe ingredients are all incorrect myths. Indeed, the CDC notes that COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history and that agencies continue to monitor the shots safety.

Still, some parents remain hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine in particular, though it is not a required school vaccine in Iowa, Illinois or Wisconsin.

Lora Small, of Dubuque, said her kids have all their vaccines required for school, but none have the COVID-19 vaccine.

(The childhood vaccines) have been out for years, and the COVID-19 vaccine came out just not even a few months after COVID-19. No, I dont trust it, she said.

Laura Knabel, a registered nurse at UnityPoint Health-Visiting Nurse Association, tied the increase in vaccine exemptions in part to the pandemic.

What is interesting to me is, were seeing more kids who have all of their vaccines up until (the COVID-19 pandemic) and then fell off, she said.

She said VNA spends a lot of time with patients trying to debunk myths and conspiracies about vaccines and instead provide them with the facts about generally mild side effects and the diseases shots prevent.

You should always be educated about what is happening to your kids, but you need to be educated by professionals, she said.

The CDC notes on its website that vaccines go through a long process of laboratory testing and clinical trials to evaluate their safety before they can be approved for use. And even after that, health experts continue to monitor vaccines safety.

Millions of children safely are vaccinated each year, according to the CDC, and any side effects are almost always mild.

The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children, the CDC states.

Knabel also said many children with religious exemptions only lack one or two vaccines, but Iowas data doesnt capture how many are fully unvaccinated and how many are just missing one shot.

Return to routineCorrigan said the pandemic threw families off of their vaccine routines, so there has been emphasis on getting kids back on track in the past year. However, she said the pandemic also contributed to the spread of misinformation about vaccines.

Our influenza vaccination rates are lower than they have been, and its spilling over into some of the childhood diseases also, she said. But hopefully, as the pandemic recovery continues, we can boost our general immunization rates back up, but thatll take a few years for that to settle out.

White said her department works daily to communicate accurate and transparent information about vaccines, but they also lean on local providers who are often a familys most trusted source for health information.

Were definitely working to reduce misinformation to make sure theres accurate information out there, and to make sure that our providers have the tools they need to be able to share accurate information in a trusted manner with the families that they serve, White said.

She likewise noted that in addition to an uptick in misinformation about vaccines, the pandemic also disrupted childrens vaccination routines.

At times, that meant putting off routine doctors appointments and delaying vaccinations for some children. Once were out of that routine, its sometimes difficult to fall back into it, she said. I do think that that partially has contributed, as well.

Corrigan said widespread immunizations have led the U.S. to see a dramatic reduction in childhood communicable diseases such as measles, diphtheria and polio. However, that also means some parents arent familiar with the danger of those illnesses.

People are not aware of the severity and seriousness of these childhood diseases, she said. We continue to try to educate parents on those factors, on the importance of immunizations for children and their not only childhood health, but lifelong health.

Preventable diseases cropping upLocal officials cited a recent spike in measles cases 41 across the country as of late February as a result of waning vaccination rates.

Corrigan noted that recent measles outbreaks in surrounding states such as Minnesota and Missouri are affecting nonimmunized populations most.

Its always a concern, especially when we have incidents around the country of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, as is the case now, she said.

Jeff Sander-Welzien, infection preventionist for MercyOne Eastern Iowa Region, said in an email to the TH that the rise in religious exemptions is cause for concern, as seen by the surge in measles cases.

He said when fewer people are vaccinated, a resurgence of preventable diseases is expected.

Sander-Welzien said the best tool to fight misinformation is education. He frequently informs patients that a vaccination doesnt guarantee someone wont get an infection. Instead, it prevents individuals from being hospitalized or suffering complications from a disease.

He said childhood vaccines are safe, have gone through extensive testing and are an important part of protecting kids from sometimes life-threatening illnesses.

We are seeing the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases that can have devastating consequences for our most vulnerable children especially babies, he said in the email.

Corrigan also said it is disheartening to see the Iowa Legislature pursue bills she said erode the requirements for immunizations. The Iowa Senate recently approved a bill that would require school communications on vaccine requirements to also include information on exemptions and how to get them.

There are other bills that would change or lessen immunization requirements, which basically continues to erode public health authority to ensure that our communities are safe for everybody, she said.

Right information, resourcesOfficials said they spend time helping families get the resources they need to receive vaccines and providing as much information as possible once they get in the door.

For children who arent vaccinated because their families havent had access to a physician, Rigopoulos typically reaches out to the Jo Daviess County Public Health Department, and an employee there contacts the family.

Usually, the health department will set up a time to bring the child in and they can get immunized there at the health department, she said. The health department also can step in and help schedule for future vaccines.

Rigopoulos also collects updated information on resources that offer health assistance to families in need.

Corrigan said entities such as the VNA or Crescent Community Health Center provide multiple layers of vaccination opportunities for families, whether they have insurance or not.

We do a lot of work to review data to see whos not up to date on their immunizations through our statewide immunization database ... so we can contact and assist people who need to be brought up to date on their immunizations, she said.

Katie Felderman, a medical assistant at Crescent Community Health Center in Dubuque, said staff not only vaccinate kids at the center but also offer shots at local schools and at events. Crescent focuses on reaching uninsured and underinsured individuals, but it also serves those with private insurance.

Felderman said Crescent hasnt seen a major increase in families being hesitant to get their children vaccinated.

Alex Murphy, director of communications for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email to the TH that the department does year-long campaigns focused on the importance of vaccinations, working closely with local public health officials.

Ultimately, Iowa HHS encourages Iowans to ask their trusted health care provider about which immunizations are right for them and their children, he said in the email.

Mara Walker, of Dubuque, said she originally was a bit hesitant to vaccinate her kids after hearing misinformation such as that vaccines inject the virus into the recipient. After researching and finding that to be false, though, she decided to vaccinate them.

I think children should get vaccinated because it prevents a lot of things, she said. If (parents) do their research and really look into vaccinations, they will see the benefits of it. A lot of people just go by word of mouth and not do their own research.

See the original post:

Local public health officials concerned with increase in vaccination exemptions - telegraphherald.com

Former President Donald Trump upset his supporters in three separate social media posts within 48 hours, which ranged from rebuking claims President Joe Biden made about the COVID-19 vaccine, opposing a TikTok ban, and complimenting Senator Katie Britt on her response to Biden's State of the Union (SOTU) address.

During Biden's SOTU speech on Thursday night, Trump, who will likely be the Republican presidential nominee in November, criticized it on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In one post, Trump quoted Biden on the COVID-19 vaccine and then took credit for accelerating the vaccine's introduction amid the pandemic.

"'The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The Vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat Cancer Turning setback into comeback!' YOU'RE WELCOME, JOE, NINE MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU!" the former president wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.

Trump's post received backlash on X, formerly Twitter. Many Republicans opposed the COVID-19 shot and the federal vaccine mandates that were implemented under the Biden administration.

"The amount of anger I have over this can't be quantified in words," Tracy Beanz, editor-in-chief of conservative media outlet UncoverDC, wrote on Friday.

"Almost everything that makes you angry about the authoritarian government response to the pandemic started with the Trump administration," wrote commentator Matt Kibbe. "Reminder: Biden simply doubled down on the same policies."

Ryan Matta, a personality on conservative streaming site Rumble, wrote: "@realDonaldTrump will be wearing @pfizer hat at his next rally! WTF is wrong with this man? Who the F*** would say this s***! We all have friends family and children we know who we're murders by these vaccines!"

Late Thursday night, Trump posted to Truth Social about TikTok, a social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, as TikTok claims that the bill would amount to a ban.

"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" he wrote.

Members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party introduced a bill this week, which was passed in a 50-0 bipartisan vote by the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, that would "incentivize divestment of TikTok" by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to similarly target social media companies controlled by a "foreign adversary." The legislation that was advanced now goes to a vote to the full U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump seemed to shift his opinion on TikTok, considering that as president in August 2020, he issued an executive order ordering ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets and destroy all data within 90 days.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham wrote on X on Friday: "This is a big mistake by the Trump campaign: Trump claims TikTok ban would only help 'enemy' Facebook."

Igor Bobic, senior politics reporter at HuffPost, wrote via X on Friday that Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, disagrees with Trump's comments.

"I'm not a fan of Facebook but TikTok is a qualitatively different deal. It's a backdoor for the Communist Chinese party," Hawley told Bobic.

Steve Bannon, a conservative media personality and Trump's former White House chief strategist, wrote on Gettr on Saturday about Trump's new stance on TikTok: "Simple: Yass Coin."

Bannon was referring to billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a $33 billion stake in Bytedance. Last week, Trump spoke at the Club for Growth retreat where he called Yass "fantastic," despite the billionaire being critical of Trump in the past.

The former president also received some heat for his response to Senator Katie Britt's attack on Biden's SOTU speech. The Alabama Republican bashed Biden's border security policies and called the president "a dithering and diminished leader" in a video that has been widely mocked.

Trump posted late Thursday night: "Katie Britt was a GREAT contrast to an Angry, and obviously very Disturbed, 'President.' She was compassionate and caring, especially concerning Women and Women's Issues. Her conversation on Migrant Crime was powerful and insightful. Great job Katie!"

"I thought she was terrible! And I am on your side," Truth Social user @MaryUSAfan1776 replied to Trump's post.

User @Kjkj629 wrote: "It was actually pretty embarrassing.. Her speech was okay.. but her delivery was terrible."

Responding to Trump's post, user @insidetrackcoach commented: "Totally disagree. Didn't need a bedtime story. We should have called out the lyes [sic], explained the bs bills, and hit hard that the border could have been closed by an executive order. Republican rebuttal sucked."

Update 3/10/24, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Donald Trump Upsets His Supporters Three Times in 48 Hours - Newsweek

When the curtain rises Monday on this years regular legislative session, education will take center stage.

Gov. Jeff Landry, the states new Republican leader, has promised to make schools a top priority, along with crime and the economy. Lawmakers are equally focused on schools: They've already filed nearly 100 education-related bills and more are expected before the session ends June 3.

The bills pursue a wide range of conservative policy objectives, from forbidding lessons on gender and sexuality to prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Other proposals are less partisan, such as providing intensive tutoring to struggling students or banning cellphones in school.

The Legislature passed some of the measures such as the restriction on lessons about sexual orientation, which critics call a Dont Say Gay bill in previous sessions, but former Gov. John Be Edwards vetoed them. Now, with Republicans controlling the Legislature and governors office, such bills are almost certain to become law.

This is our time, Landry said during a conservative policy conference Thursday, which many state lawmakers attended. This is our opportunity.

Here are some education proposals to watch:

SB 207: Requires students to stow away their cellphones during school.

SB 358: Lowers the age when students can be expelled for bringing guns or drugs to school from 16 to 13.

HB 322: Protects teachers who discipline students for violating school rules or disrupting class.

SB 262: Forbids schools to teach that students are either oppressors or oppressed due to their race.

HB 121: Requires parental permission for students to use a name or gender pronoun other than whats on their birth certificates.

HB 122: Prohibits educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity beyond whats in the state standards. Educators also may not discuss their own gender or sexuality with students.

HB 8: Prohibits the state board of education from creating an appeals process to allow students to still graduate if they fail a mandatory state test. The board briefly established such a process last year, but Landry promptly repealed it after taking office.

HB 264: Requires students to pass a computer science course to graduate.

HB 66: Creates a voucher-like program, called an education savings account, for families of children with disabilities. The program gives eligible families public money to pay for private school and other approved education expenses.

HB 191: Creates an education savings account program for families of children who have been bullied.

TBD: An education savings account program that will eventually be open to all families is expected to be filed early in the session.

HB 71: Requires public schools and colleges to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The bill includes the required language, including this biblical rule: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

HB 334 and SB 123: Allow schools to hire chaplains.

HB 320: Repeals policies that required teachers to give lessons on a range of topics including cursive writing, dating violence, internet safety and mental health. Also says teachers no longer need training in first aid, suicide prevention, bullying and other issues.

HB 420 and SB 205: Pays teachers for time spent planning and working with students after school.

SB 288: Requires schools to provide students who score below a certain level on state tests with high-dosage tutoring, which consists of three to five weekly sessions for at least 10 weeks.

HB 244: Expands a program (which few families have used) that covers the cost of private tutoring.

HB 46: Prohibits any public or private school from requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

HB 47: Allows parents to opt out of providing proof that their children have been immunized against contagious illnesses.

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Cellphones, vaccines, the Ten Commandments: Here are education bills to watch this session - NOLA.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia's GOP-controlled state Legislature voted Saturday to allow some students who don't attend traditional public schools to be exempt from state vaccination requirements that have long been held up as among the most strict in the country.

The bill was approved despite the objections of Republican Senate Health and Human Resources Chair Mike Maroney, a trained doctor, who called the bill an embarrassment and said he believed lawmakers were harming the state.

I took an oath to do no harm. There's zero chance I can vote for this bill, Maroney said before the bill passed the Senate 18-12. The House already approved a version of the bill in February and swiftly approved the Senate bill on Saturday, the last day of the state's 60-day legislative session.

Its a bad bill for West Virginia, its a step backward. Theres no question, no question there will be negative effects," Maroney said. He added, Its an embarrassment for me to be a part of it, it should be an embarrassment to everybody.

West Virginia, with some of the lowest life expectancy rates in the U.S. and a quarter of all children living in poverty, is one of only two states, along with California, that don't permit nonmedical exemptions to vaccinations as a condition for school entry.

Mississippi had the same policy until July, when a judge allowed people to start citing religious beliefs to seek exemptions from state-mandated vaccinations that children must receive before attending day care or school.

The new proposed vaccine law in West Virginia, which now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice, allows virtual public school students to be exempt and for private and parochial schools to institute their own policies either exempting students or not.

All students participating in West Virginia school activities that result in competition, including but not limited to sports, still need to be vaccinated.

The bill stipulates parents cant sue private schools and school owners, administrators, boards and staffers for deciding whether to allow exemptions or not, as long as the school provides families with a notice for parents to sign acknowledging the policy annually and upon enrollment.

I personally do not urge passage, but your health committee urged passage of this bill, Maroney said before introducing the bill in the Senate.

The bills original intent, as introduced in the state House of Delegates, was to eliminate vaccine requirements for students in public virtual schools. It was expanded in a House committee to allow private schools to set their own vaccination standards, unless a student participates in sanctioned athletics.

The bill also created a religious exemption for any child whose parents or guardians present a letter stating the child cannot be vaccinated for religious reasons. That was taken out in the Senate.

During the Senate Health Committee meeting earlier this week, West Virginia University School of Medicine Professor Dr. Alvin Moss argued for the bill, saying the state's current compulsory vaccination policy is medically unethical because it doesnt allow informed consent.

The number of parents who don't want their children to receive vaccinations is growing, Moss said.

In 2017, the anti-vaccine requirement group West Virginians for Health Freedom had 300 families included in his members. That number has grown to at least 3,000 members in 2024, Moss said.

Former West Virginia Republican Delegate Chanda Adkins, a group member, said during the meeting that religious families who don't want to vaccinate their children deserve to be able to live their convictions.

Former West Virginia Medical Association Dr. Lisa Costello disagreed, saying West Virginias current vaccine policy is the "gold standard" across the nation.

West Virginia is seen as a national leader when it comes to our routine, child immunizations," she said, later adding, Measles does not care if you go to private school or public school. Measles does not differentiate depending on where you go to school."

West Virginia law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, unless they receive a medical exemption. West Virginia does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.

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West Virginia lawmakers OK bill drawing back one of the country's strictest child vaccination laws - Yahoo! Voices

A 62-year-old man in Germany decided to get 217 Covid-19 vaccinations over the course of 29 months for private reasons. But, somewhat surprisingly, he doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from the excessive immunization, according to a newly published case study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The case is just one person, of course, so the findings can't be extrapolated to the general population. But, they conflict with a widely held concern among researchers that such overexposure to vaccination could lead to weaker immune response. Some experts have raised this concern in discussions over how frequently people should get Covid-19 booster doses.

In cases of chronic exposure to a disease-causing germ, there is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances, according to co-lead study author Kilian Schober from the Institute of Microbiology Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. This, along with other effects, can lead to immune tolerance that leads to weaker responses that are less effective at fighting off a pathogen, Schober explained in a news release.

The German man's extreme history of hypervaccination seemed like a good case to look for evidence of such tolerance and weaker responses. Schober and his colleagues learned of the man's case through news headlinesofficials had opened a fraud investigation against the man, confirming 130 vaccinations over nine months, but no criminal charges were ever filed. "We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen [a city in Bavaria]," Schober said. "He was very interested in doing so." The man then reported an additional 87 vaccinations to the researchers, which in total included eight different vaccine formulations, including updated boosters.

The researchers were able to collect blood and saliva samples from the man during his 214th to 217th vaccine doses. They compared his immune responses to those of 29 people who had received a standard three-dose series.

Throughout the dizzying number of vaccines, the man never reported any vaccine side effects, and his clinical testing revealed no abnormalities related to hypervaccination. The researchers conducted a detailed look at his responses to the vaccines, finding that while some aspects of his protection were stronger, on the whole, his immune responses were functionally similar to those from people who had far fewer doses. Vaccine-spurred antibody levels in his blood rose after a new dose but then began declining, similar to what was seen in the controls.

His antibodies' ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be between fivefold and 11-fold higher than in controls, but the researchers noted that this was due to a higher quantity of antibodies, not more potent antibodies. Specific subsets of immune cells, namely B-cells trained against SARS-CoV-2's spike protein and T effector cells, were elevated compared with controls. But they seemed to function normally. As another type of control, the researchers also looked at the man's immune response to an unrelated virus, Epstein-Barr, which causes mononucleosis. They found that the unbridled immunizations did not negatively impact responses to that virus, suggesting there were no ill effects on immune responses generally.

Last, multiple types of testing indicated that the man has never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the researchers were cautious to note that this may be due to other precautions the man took beyond getting 217 vaccines.

"In summary, our case report shows that SARS-CoV-2 hypervaccination did not lead to adverse events and increased the quantity of spike-specific antibodies and T cells without having a strong positive or negative effect on the intrinsic quality of adaptive immune responses," the authors concluded. "Importantly," they added, we do not endorse hypervaccination as a strategy to enhance adaptive immunity.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.

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A 62-Year-Old German Man Got 217 Covid Shotsand Was Totally Fine - WIRED

A patient is transferred to a hospital after receiving medical care at an improvised military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the administrative region of Ceilandia, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on Feb. 6. Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A patient is transferred to a hospital after receiving medical care at an improvised military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the administrative region of Ceilandia, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on Feb. 6.

It was 3 a.m. on Feb. 6 when the dengue field hospital in Braslia temporarily shut its doors.

The generator powering the medical facility had blown and the 29 members of the Brazilian Air Force in charge had to change it before they could see patients again. Medical professionals who'd been trained to care for dengue patients, they expected to attend to up to 600 people with suspected cases per day. In the first 24 hours after the doors opened on Feb. 5, they saw 1,300. The generator couldn't keep up.

As they worked through the middle of the night and into the wee hours of the morning to get power back to the tents set up next to the neighborhood emergency care unit, a new line started to form. By the time the new generator was in place at 8 a.m., some people had been waiting for hours, sitting on the ground in an attempt to stave off dizziness, headache and body aches from a disease so painful it's known as "breakbone fever."

Just two days later, there was an explosion in the number of confirmed dengue cases in the Federal District, where Brasilia is situated. That Brazilian state had issued an emergency decree two weeks earlier because of the havoc the mosquito-borne disease was wreaking on its population. In the midst of an unprecedented dengue outbreak that began in 2022, the Federal District is the Brazilian state most affected this year. By Feb. 17, it surpassed 72,600 confirmed cases which was the total for all of 2023.

Patients with dengue symptoms are seen at the Municipal Hospital Raphael de Paula Souza in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 5. The virus can can start with fever, rash, muscle and joint pain and progress to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose and difficulty breathing. Mauro Pimental/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Patients with dengue symptoms are seen at the Municipal Hospital Raphael de Paula Souza in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Feb. 5. The virus can can start with fever, rash, muscle and joint pain and progress to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose and difficulty breathing.

At least six Brazilian states in addition to the Federal District are facing dengue epidemics and 17 cities have declared a state of emergency as the country has already registered 1 million cases of dengue in the first two months of 2024, more than half the 1.6 million cases confirmed last year which was already almost 18% higher than in 2022. The fatality count in those same two months was 214.

As a result, Brazil's public health-care system, known as SUS, has been grappling to keep up, resorting to field hospitals like the one in Braslia and tents in strategic points around its cities to triage patients with suspected cases of dengue.

While caring for those who are already ill, Brazil continues to tackle prevention with its usual methods: using a fog machine to kill mosquitoes by spraying fine droplets with low concentrations of insecticides mixed with water and running campaigns to remind people how to avoid a bite from dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (using bug spray, keeping stagnant water out of homes and wearing long sleeves and pants are all helpful), where the species breeds (it's important to remove stagnant water and anything that collects it from homes) and what to do if symptoms arise (don't self-medicate make sure to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment).

A worker sprays insecticide during a fumigation campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, in Brasilia. It's one of many strategies being employed to fight an unprecedented outbreak of the virus. Andressa Anholete/Getty Images hide caption

A worker sprays insecticide during a fumigation campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, in Brasilia. It's one of many strategies being employed to fight an unprecedented outbreak of the virus.

Brazil's not the only place where dengue is running rampant. Nearby Peru is in the throes of an epidemic. Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have also seen dengue spike dramatically. Niger, a subtropical country, reported its first case of the disease in 2022. And in the last year, high-heat states like Texas, Florida and California have seen a smattering of unexpected cases of dengue.

The mosquito-borne viral disease which causes symptoms like fever, rash, muscle and joint pain in mild cases and can lead to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose, difficulty breathing and death when it becomes hemorrhagic had only occurred in seven countries before 1970. But over the last 20 years, the World Health Organization reports the number of yearly dengue cases has increased by eight times with 100 to 400 million registered worldwide every year. Now, roughly half the world's population is at risk of infection.

Why is dengue making such unprecedented strides?

The answer lies in the method of transmission and the changing environment of Earth.

Dengue is transmitted to humans in tropical and subtropical climates through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The species prefers to live and breed in urban and semi-urban areas because of its need for human blood in the egg-production process. Those eggs, laid on the surface of stagnant water, can be found in construction sites, tire shops, cemeteries, abandoned swimming pools, plant pots and anyplace else where water collects.

The mosquitoes are thriving in areas where climate change has made temperatures higher and precipitation more abundant than in the past this species likes it hot and humid. In the last handful of years, migration, urbanization and other socioeconomic issues have also all played a hand in providing ideal conditions for the spread of Aedes aegypti and the dengue it can carry.

So it's not enough to tell people to get rid of standing water and be more fastidious with their use of bug spray. And in its response to this unprecedented outbreak, Brazil has become a test case: experimenting with other interventions to prevent a dengue-ridden future.

A girl in Manaus, Brazil, receives a dose of the Odenga dengue vaccine on Feb. 22. A previous dengue vaccine, used in the Philippines, was linked to 10 deaths. This new vaccine, according to specialists, has a different formulation; its deployment is being closely monitored. Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A girl in Manaus, Brazil, receives a dose of the Odenga dengue vaccine on Feb. 22. A previous dengue vaccine, used in the Philippines, was linked to 10 deaths. This new vaccine, according to specialists, has a different formulation; its deployment is being closely monitored.

In February, Brazil's public health-care system started rolling out Japan's two-dose Qdenga vaccine already available on the private market in several countries in Europe, the U.K., Indonesia and Thailand, as well as private and public programs in Argentina in the country's first attempt to immunize the most vulnerable members of the population against dengue. During clinical trials, the vaccine's efficacy was 80% one year after the second dose was administered.

The Butantan Institute, a biological research center located in So Paulo, is also developing a vaccine to prevent all four variations of the mosquito-borne disease. In its most recent clinical trials, conducted across Brazil from 2013 to 2015, the single-dose vaccine protected 79.6% of those immunized including both those who have and have not had dengue before.

But dengue vaccines have a controversial history. While Brazil hasn't taken steps to vaccinate its population against dengue until now, the Philippines did attempt to immunize children across the country in 2016. The vaccination campaign went horribly wrong, with at least 10 deaths blamed on the vaccine, which seemed to increase the risk of plasma leakage syndrome, a complication in which blood vessels leak blood's yellow fluid, in children who had never been exposed to dengue before. The tragedy left the population cautious about new dengue vaccines.

But experts are optimistic that safer options are to come.

"The new vaccines are made in a different way, so I would hope they don't have the same effect [as the vaccine used in the Philippines]," says Andr Siqueira, an infectious-disease expert and febrile-illness researcher at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) who is not involved in the development of any of the vaccines. "They're very promising. But they need to be strictly observed and monitored."

An Aedes aegypti mosquito seen through a microscope. A campaign is underway to inject mosquitoes and mosquito eggs with the Wolbachia bacteria, which can bring a halt to virus replication and transmission. Mauro Pimental/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

An Aedes aegypti mosquito seen through a microscope. A campaign is underway to inject mosquitoes and mosquito eggs with the Wolbachia bacteria, which can bring a halt to virus replication and transmission.

Other solutions focus on the mosquito. Brazil has been working with the World Mosquito Program for over a decade and, in collaboration with Fiocruz, is building a mosquito biofactory.

The project, called Wolbito, will produce mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a bacteria found naturally in the majority of insects (including other types of mosquitoes) but not in Aedes aegypti. When scientists insert the bacteria into the species' eggs, it should have a number of beneficial results.

First, a virus can no longer replicate inside a mosquito born from those eggs so the mosquitoes can't transmit the dengue virus.

Second, females carrying Wolbachia pass the bacteria on to their descendants, so there's a continuing impact.

And third, any males with it make females they mate with incapable of laying eggs.

When Wolbachia is established in a mosquito population (after scientists release mosquitoes from the factory and plant eggs with the bacteria around a community) it should mean a decrease in incidences of dengue, among other mosquito-borne diseases, according to Neelika Malavige, who is not affiliated with the biofactory and is head of Dengue Global Program and Scientific Affairs at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

"The Wolbachia method is one of the best interventions for vector control so far," says Malavige. "Since it's a biological method, the harm to the environment by chemical fogging is eliminated. So far the trials have shown very promising results, but we need to further understand the costs involved in implementing this method in low- and middle-income countries to determine if it's affordable and we also need to better understand how this technology can be transferred to the countries."

When it's ready next year, the mosquito biofactory will be able to produce 400 million Wolbachia eggs a month for Aedes aegypti the species that can carry and spread not only dengue but also yellow fever, chikungunya and zika.

"The number of dengue cases have shot up," says Luciano Moreira, a senior research scientist at Fiocruz and project lead of the World Mosquito Program in Brazil. "With our biofactory, we project that, in 10 years, we will be able to protect around 70 million people in several cities across Brazil."

Malavige agrees with Moreira that the process might not be quick, but the method has shown promise.

So far, Wolbito has released mosquitoes in five municipalities around the country, with plans to add another six this year. The team of experts first takes two to four weeks to talk to the communities about what it wants to do and the benefits.

Residents often have a lot of questions. They want to know if the bacteria could contaminate the environment when the mosquito dies (no, when the mosquito dies at the end of its lifespan the bacteria dies with it), if Wolbachia passes to humans when they're bitten (it doesn't) and if the process genetically modifies the mosquitoes (no, their genes stay the same). One downside is an initial increase in mosquitoes when those with Wolbachia join the local population, but that only causes some annoyance because of mosquito bites.

Once they have permission from people living in the community, the scientists take to the streets for four to six weeks, driving or walking around with containers full of Aedes aegypti with Wolbachia to release in strategic points of the city. They also hang open containers of eggs from trees, allowing Wolbachia mosquitoes to hatch in the local habitat.

"It's not a method that allows you to see change from one day to the next," says Moreira. "But it is self-sustaining.

"In some areas of Brazil where we released our mosquitoes more than eight years ago, more than 90% of the population still has Wolbachia."

The project has only been carried out in a handful of Brazilian cities, which is why dengue outbreaks have led to epidemics in many places that don't yet work with Wolbito.

But in the cities where it's been working, the scientists have seen encouraging results. Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, started with Wolbito in 2015 and, just last year, became the first city to release Wolbachia mosquitoes in all of its neighborhoods. According to its secretariat of health, the city has seen a 70% reduction in its number of dengue cases following the implementation of the program (there were 158 cases in 2015 and 55 in 2023) and has not seen a spike during this latest surge.

Another method being used in Brazil to curb the Aedes aegypti population is the release of male mosquitoes sterilized with nuclear radiation, meaning they can't fertilize eggs.

The males, sterilized at two biofactories in Brazil, are released in the same way as Wolbachia mosquitoes experts head out on foot and in cars, opening containers in areas known to be Aedes aegypti breeding grounds.

For one company, coming up with a way to distribute sterile mosquitoes more widely was a strategy worth developing.

Called Birdview, the startup originally used drones to release insects that naturally fight agricultural pests, reaching areas of farms that were otherwise difficult to get to and lowering the use of pesticides on crops. Now, it flies drones equipped with insect cassettes into hard-to-reach corners of narrow city neighborhoods. Each of those cassettes, which has a film-covered bottom that slowly opens to release the sterile males, can carry up to 17,000 of them per 10-minute flight that covers roughly 25 acres.

"We're still in pilot mode right now," says Ricardo Machado, engineer and founder of Birdview. "But we're ready and eager to do this in larger areas. And eventually we want to decentralize the process, training local people to fly the drones so that communities can be self-sufficient, the cost can be kept low and jobs can be created."

As the number of cases of dengue across Brazil continues to tick upward, the field hospital in Braslia has gotten its operations under control. But lines of people with suspected cases of dengue continue to be in the thousands, so the Federal District upped the number of individual dengue tents around the city another way to triage patients that is complementary to the hospital and its permanent health-care units from nine to 20.

It's a cautionary tale for the world as dengue continues to spread.

"It's not like measles, where you give a vaccine and it's end-of-story," says Malavige. "Look at COVID. We have vaccines, we have drugs, and when things get really bad and there's an outbreak, governments ask people to mask up again. For dengue it's the same. We have to have multiple strategies."

Jill Langlois is an independent journalist based in So Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the largest city in the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the environment and the impact of socioeconomic issues on people's lives.

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With a million cases of dengue so far this year, Brazil is in a state of emergency - NPR

Many vaccines, including vaccines for hepatitis B and whooping cough, consist of fragments of viral or bacterial proteins. These vaccines often include other molecules called adjuvants, which help to boost the immune systems response to the protein.

Most of these adjuvants consist of aluminum salts or other molecules that provoke a nonspecific immune response. A team of MIT researchers has now shown that a type of nanoparticle called a metal organic framework (MOF) can also provoke a strong immune response, by activating the innate immune system the bodys first line of defense against any pathogen through cell proteins called toll-like receptors.

In a study of mice, the researchers showed that this MOF could successfully encapsulate and deliver part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, while also acting as an adjuvant once the MOF is broken down inside cells.

While more work would be needed to adapt these particles for use as vaccines, the study demonstrates that this type of structure can be useful for generating a strong immune response, the researchers say.

Understanding how the drug delivery vehicle can enhance an adjuvant immune response is something that could be very helpful in designing new vaccines, says Ana Jaklenec, a principal investigator at MITs Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the senior authors of the new study.

Robert Langer, an MIT Institute Professor and member of the Koch Institute, and Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor at Harvard Medical School, are also senior authors of the paper, which appears today in Science Advances. The papers lead author is former MIT postdoc and Ibn Khaldun Fellow Shahad Alsaiari.

Immune activation

In this study, the researchers focused on a MOF called ZIF-8, which consists of a lattice of tetrahedral units made up of a zinc ion attached to four molecules of imidazole, an organic compound. Previous work has shown that ZIF-8 can significantly boost immune responses, but it wasnt known exactly how this particle activates the immune system.

To try to figure that out, the MIT team created an experimental vaccine consisting of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding protein (RBD) embedded within ZIF-8 particles. These particles are between 100 and 200 nanometers in diameter, a size that allows them to get into the bodys lymph nodes directly or through immune cells such as macrophages.

Once the particles enter the cells, the MOFs are broken down, releasing the viral proteins. The researchers found that the imidazole components then activate toll-like receptors (TLRs), which help to stimulate the innate immune response.

This process is analogous to establishing a covert operative team at the molecular level to transport essential elements of the Covid-19 virus to the bodys immune system, where they can activate specific immune responses to boost vaccine efficacy, Alsaiari says.

RNA sequencing of cells from the lymph nodes showed that mice vaccinated with ZIF-8 particles carrying the viral protein strongly activated a TLR pathway known as TLR-7, which led to greater production of cytokines and other molecules involved in inflammation.

Mice vaccinated with these particles generated a much stronger response to the viral protein than mice that received the protein on its own.

Not only are we delivering the protein in a more controlled way through a nanoparticle, but the compositional structure of this particle is also acting as an adjuvant, Jaklenec says. We were able to achieve very specific responses to the Covid protein, and with a dose-sparing effect compared to using the protein by itself to vaccinate.

Vaccine access

While this study and others have demonstrated ZIF-8s immunogenic ability, more work needs to be done to evaluate the particles safety and potential to be scaled up for large-scale manufacturing. If ZIF-8 is not developed as a vaccine carrier, the findings from the study should help to guide researchers in developing similar nanoparticles that could be used to deliver subunit vaccines, Jaklenec says.

Most subunit vaccines usually have two separate components: an antigen and an adjuvant, Jaklenec says. Designing new vaccines that utilize nanoparticles with specific chemical moieties which not only aid in antigen delivery but can also activate particular immune pathways have the potential to enhance vaccine potency.

One advantage to developing a subunit vaccine for Covid-19 is that such vaccines are usually easier and cheaper to manufacture than mRNA vaccines, which could make it easier to distribute them around the world, the researchers say.

Subunit vaccines have been around for a long time, and they tend to be cheaper to produce, so that opens up more access to vaccines, especially in times of pandemic, Jaklenec says.

The research was funded by Ibn Khaldun Fellowships for Saudi Arabian Women and in part by the Koch Institute Support (core) Grant from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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MIT scientists use a new type of nanoparticle to make vaccines more powerful - MIT News

Protecting oneself from SARS-CoV-2 with vaccines and boosters is a good thing. But, when it comes to vaccines, could there be too much of a good thing?

If anyone would know, it would be a 62-year-old hypervaccinated man from Magdeburg, Germany who received at least 134 vaccinationspossibility 217against SARS-CoV-2 within a period of 29 months.

After finding out about the man via a newspaper article, researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt in Germany examined him, finding a stronger-than-expected immune system and increasing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

Hypervaccination has not been extensively studied. Some scientists were of the opinion that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens. Others thought it could negatively impact the immune systems effectiveness against other pathogens.

In the case of the German man, researchers found both of those to be untrue. After researchers read about the man in the newspaper, they contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests, which he was very interested in.

In the course of the examination, the man insisted on receiving another SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, what he claimed to be his 217th. The team found documentation for at least 134 vaccinations.

The researchers took blood samples when the man received the latest vaccination, and were even able to compare them to the mans previous blood samples, which had been taken in a healthcare setting before the vaccinations and frozen.

The study results, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed that the individual has large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2. These act as the bodys own soldiers that fight against the virus. The man even had more of these compared with the control group of people who have received three vaccinations. The researchers did not perceive any fatigue in these effector cellsthey were similarly effective as those in the control group who had received the normal number of vaccinations.

The team also recorded no negative effects on the mans memory T cells.

The number of memory cells was just as high in our test case as in the control group, said Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study. Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary.

Even the 217th vaccination the man received during the study still had an effect: the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result, according to the researchers observations.

Further tests indicate that there is no change to the immune systems effectiveness against pathogens that are not SARS-CoV-2.

The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered in spite of this extraordinary hypervaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability, said study author Kilian Schober.

The study authors stress that this is one individual case, and although the results are positive, the conclusions reached are not sufficient to make recommendations for the general public.

Current research indicates that a three-dose vaccination, coupled with regular top-up vaccines for vulnerable groups, remains the favored approach. There is no indication that more vaccines are required, said Schober.

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Study Details Immune Response of Man who Received 217 COVID Vaccinations - Laboratory Equipment