# Stuff Scientists Have Recently Learned About Covid **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Created:** [March 13, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811 "2024-03-13T20:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/1 "2024-03-13T20:27:39Z")
This NYT free link deserves a wider audience. > **[Four Years On, the Mysteries of Covid Are Unraveling](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/well/live/covid-symptoms-mysteries.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cU0.Hnc5.POFZcWEWJV8r&smid=url-share)** > > Are superdodgers real? Is Covid seasonal? And what’s behind its strangest symptoms? Here’s what we’ve learned. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/2 "2024-03-16T23:06:31Z")
125 posts were split to a new topic: [Revisiting covid denial and covid restrictions](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revisiting-covid-denial-and-covid-restrictions/998932) ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/7 "2024-03-13T21:05:56Z")
They also learned you can get vaxxed 217 times with no negative effects: [https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/health/covid-217-shots-hypervaccination-lancet/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/health/covid-217-shots-hypervaccination-lancet/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/128 "2024-03-16T22:58:05Z")
Moderating: All this stuff about who got covid and what restrictions might have been issued in which locations is a hijack to the subject, “what new has learned”. I apologize for participating in it. I’m going to move them to a different thread. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/129 "2024-03-16T23:07:29Z")
Let’s keep this thread to new info, and not avoid revisiting old arguments. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/130 "2024-03-17T14:46:56Z")
I’m not entirely sure if this is what the OP had I mind, but I find it exciting to think that the technology of mRNA vaccines is being applied to cancer research. We _are_ going to be able to immunize people against certain types of cancer in the _near_ future. > [@](#): > > Dozens of [clinical trials](https://www.cancer.gov/Common/PopUps/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000045961&version=Patient&language=en) are testing mRNA treatment vaccines in people with various types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and melanoma. Some vaccines are being evaluated in combination with drugs that enhance the body’s [immune response](https://www.cancer.gov/Common/PopUps/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000045722&version=Patient&language=en) to tumors… > > Among the cells likely to take up mRNA from a vaccine are [dendritic cells](https://www.cancer.gov/Common/PopUps/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000044948&version=Patient&language=en), which are the sentinels of the immune system. After taking up and translating the mRNA, [dendritic cells](https://www.cancer.gov/Common/PopUps/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000044948&version=Patient&language=en)present the resulting proteins, or antigens, to immune cells such as [T cells](https://www.cancer.gov/Common/PopUps/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000044928&version=Patient&language=en), starting the immune response. > > “Dendritic cells act as teachers, educating T cells so that they can search for and kill cancer cells or virus-infected cells,” depending on the antigen, said Karine Breckpot, Ph.D., of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, who studies mRNA vaccines… > > Insights about the composition of mRNA or the way mRNA is packaged that emerge from studies of viruses could potentially inform work on cancer vaccines, said Dr. Breckpot. > > “Unfortunately, it took a pandemic for there to be broad acceptance of mRNA vaccines among the scientific community,” she added. “But the global use of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines has demonstrated the safety of this approach and will open doors for cancer vaccines.” > **[How mRNA Vaccines Might Help Treat Cancer](https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2022/mrna-vaccines-to-treat-cancer)** > > The success of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could accelerate research on mRNA vaccines to treat cancer. Read about the progress of mRNA cancer vaccines. And in looking for that I found this scientific paper. My unsophisticated reading of it is probably naive, but are they saying that the Covid vaccine itself showed efficacy against a specific carcinoma? > **[Spontaneous tumor regression following COVID-19 vaccination](https://jitc.bmj.com/content/10/3/e004371)** > > Vaccination against COVID-19 is critical for immuno-compromised individuals, including patients with cancer. Systemic reactogenicity, a manifestation of the innate immune response to vaccines, occurs in up to 69% of patients following vaccination... ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/131 "2024-03-17T15:39:40Z")
Great link, thanks! > [@Moriarty](#): > > And in looking for that I found this scientific paper. My unsophisticated reading of it is probably naive, but are they saying that the Covid vaccine itself showed efficacy against a specific carcinoma? Usually the vaccine would be directed against the tumor itself, but your paper is talking about a tumor regression caused by the covid vaccine. Apparently she had a pretty robust immune response after her second dose of the vaccine. The stimulation of her innate (non-specific) immune system by the vaccine, caused a systemic immune response with immune cells infiltrating and taking out her tumor like ninjas. Pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/132 "2024-03-17T16:06:35Z")
It is exciting twenty years of research so quickly crystallized into an effective COVID vaccine. To me, nothing says _America_ more than its brightest minds working night and day to find a vaccine, proving it works and possibly saving millions of lives, and then millions of people preferring to take worm medication because it is their _sacrosanct_ right to choose what they want to do with _their_ individual body, unless talking about abortion. Thanks for posting those links. I agree completely. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/133 "2024-03-18T01:27:27Z")
> [@Tfletch1](#): > > Great link > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Thanks for posting those links. The optimism about how quickly this technology can advance is really exciting. > [@](#): > > When BioNTech and Moderna compare a patient’s tumour cells and healthy cells, they do so by conducting genomic sequencing of the small part of the genome that is related to protein production. This is quicker and cheaper, and their scientists feel that if they can identify abnormal tumour proteins, they should be relatively easy targets for the immune system. > > However, with the rapidly falling cost of genome sequencing – the [world’s first $100 genome](https://leaps.org/genome/) was announced last year – it is becoming more viable to sequence the entire genome. CureVac is already pioneering this approach with the aim of potentially identifying subtler and more hidden targets that relate to how the body’s malfunctioning genetics is enabling the tumour to thrive. > > “The tumour genome is full of what are called structural variations,” says Ronald Plasterk, the senior vice-president for science and innovation at CureVac Netherlands. “On average, let’s say in a lung cancer, there’s about 100 to 200 of these structural variations, and they’ve been fully ignored by previous efforts, because you have to sequence the full genome to pull them out.” > > But while scientists are still grappling with how best to optimise cancer vaccines against tumours, it may not be long before the first mRNA cancer vaccine hits the market. **Moderna and MSD are aiming to launch a much larger phase III trial in advanced melanoma patients this year [2023] and, if that proves successful, they could apply for regulatory approval within the next couple of years.** > **[‘This will happen before 2030’: how the science behind Covid vaccines might...](https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/22/the-other-big-c-how-the-science-behind-covid-vaccines-might-help-to-fight-cancer)** > > The success of mRNA-based drugs in combating coronavirus is inspiring scientists to create similar vaccines for melanoma and other tumours ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/134 "2024-03-18T02:53:37Z")
The good news is the vaxnuts will hate this vaccine too and soon the only people who get cancer will be those who deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/135 "2024-03-18T03:26:36Z")
And innocent bystanders for whom the vaccine isn’t 100% effective, or can’t take it because of an allergic reaction. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-scientists-have-recently-learned-about-covid/998811/136 "2024-03-18T03:55:48Z")
Yeah. Sadly there will always be those folks who want but can’t. Or at least can’t effectively. Because cancer is not infectious, at least those poor folks won’t be carrying a disease burden caused by the too-stupid-to-vax crowd. Unlike the case with COVID, flu, whooping cough, measles, etc.