Lisa writes:
Hi Vincent and Daniel,
Thanks as always for your light in this darkness!
Two things:
Since the start of the COVID pandemic I’ve started summing up crackpot health theories/ advice this way: “Pseudoscience- it’s perfect for the psuedo-smart!”
What is it going to take for people to realize what a gift immunizations are?? Reopening or rebuilding schools for the deaf and schools for the blind that were in every major city and most states and were shutdown because of the admirable success of our nation’s vaccination program? Life was very different for children need before IZs and it is nonsensical that people who proclaim that life is so precious show such disregard for children’s lives and the quality of children’s lives.
I’m just venting to sympathetic ears!
All the best,
Lisa
Shikha writes:
Hi! Firstly, thank you for all of your excellent reporting and scientific discussions the last few years. As an immunologist living in New York, you’ve really gotten me through tough times.
I’ve been experiencing post-viral pericarditis the last few months (since Jan 2025), and given high IgG levels of Coxsackie B strains, doctors have determined this is the likely cause. While symptoms have been gradually decreasing over the past few months, whenever I am exposed to a new virus (doesn’t matter what) they trigger again – chest pain, eye twitching, swollen lymph nodes, extreme tiredness. I only had Covid infection for the first time in Dec 2023/early 2024 and feel that some part of how I respond to new viruses has changed. What do you think about this? I know Coxsackie is quite rare in adults but I was traveling to India at the end of last year. Have you seen this before and modulated immunity based on Covid infection?
Thanks!
Shikha
Lisa writes:
Thank you so much all the insights you share every week!
A few weeks ago a coworker, who had brought her son to work because he had a doctor appointment for respiratory issues, told me he had had a Covid infection when he was 1 and that his lung development fell behind at that time. He has been catching up but it’s been a long process. Has Covid infection in the very young been found to slow lung development or is it more likely to be coincidence that her son had infection and had lung development slow at the same time?
Lisa
Austin, TX
P.S. Regarding your comment wondering what would happen when younger people try to get vaccinations at pharmacies if the guidelines about at what age a vaccine is recommended changes from my recent experience I would expect that the pharmacy website wouldn’t let people under the newly recommended age schedule a vaccine appointment online for a vaccine. Since a pharmacy chain recently pointed out to me that pneumonia vaccine was now recommended for people over 50 I tried to schedule but their website wouldn’t let me; it must not have been updated regarding who to allow to schedule that vaccine. So I scheduled it online with their main competitor instead and got vaccinated over the weekend. That seemed easier and more efficient than testing whether the first pharmacy chain would have vaccinated me if I showed up without an appointment.
Rita writes:
Hello Daniel and Vincent,
Our son Daniel will be at large meetings in Boston June 12-13.These will be mostly if not totally unmasked events. He would like to come to see us over the weekend. He does keep up to date with vaccines. We are in Woods Hole on Cape Cod and would love to see him. His family is now in Florida and we have not seen any of them for about two years. We are in our 80’s, I had chemotherapy in 2023. We are up to date on vaccines, both of us got Novavax and Flu in October 2024 and I had RSV and pneumonia vaccines in September 2024. We are trying to figure out the best approach so he can visit us. Testing? When, what kind? He will be staying with us so masking all the time with meals and all would be difficult.
Any chance of advice will be much appreciated.
Thank you, we value and support the good science of microbe.tv
Rita