TWiV 684: Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory

November 22, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, and Shane Crotty explains a study of antibodies, B cells and T cells in patients which suggests that immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 might be long-lived.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker

Guests: Daniel Griffin and Shane Crotty

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Download TWiV 684 (110 MB .mp3, 184 min)
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9 comments on “TWiV 684: Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory

  1. Richard Cornell Nov 22, 2020

    Neanderthals would be blond hair, blue eye person.
    When I was born miracle cures did not exist so as a child I got what ever was going around. Over the decades I have been exposed to colds, flu, and any thing that I need not physical touch to get me sick. I have been exposed to foul air, polluted water and all normal things a person encounters over their life span. Since I have been exposed to these things I wonder how much damage it has done on my body before this COVID-19 came out last year. This virus does a number on older people, while a child can get it they shrug it off as a cold.
    My living outside of a large city could be a factor where I’m not exposed to foul air, gasoline exhaust vapors, or densely population of people who carry mini plagues.
    Still hope that the rest of the population do herd so that me being infected before the vaccine comes does not occur.

  2. Richard Cornell Nov 22, 2020

    If 25% of the US adults believe that the earth is 6000 years old. Then why would they believe that this plague or any plague was real. That the vaccine is made up of a witches brew with bits of human DNA, lizards, Black magic spells and my favorite, a shadow of a puppy dog tail. Oh! Yes and other secrets blends not being put on the ingredients label.
    Either that or the very painful death they will experience hours before their lungs are torn apart and their screams are silent.
    What do you do with fools.

  3. Sandy Rice Nov 22, 2020

    Of these percentage of people with morbidity after 60 days of hospital discharge, are they being counted in the 250,000 deaths? Or is that number just patients while in hospital?
    I love listening to your show. Thank you for keeping us informed with the “truth”.

  4. Ramona I Lainhart, PhD Nov 23, 2020

    Hi TWIV Professionals,
    I have a question for you and for Daniel Griffin – Is it recommended that those of us on immunosuppressants get a COVID vaccine and under what circumstances should this be done? Is it necessary that we be off our “meds” for any specific period of time to receive a vaccine? I ask in that when I requested a Shingles (Shingrix) vaccine my rheumatologist said no. I took it upon myself to get it safely anyway and was off my prescription (immunosuppressant) for at least 2 months -waited the needed time between first and second dose off meds and remained off them at least 2-3 months after 2nd dose. In all I was off my prescription medication for RA nearly a year to get this accomplished. I had shingles as a child and my elderly father experienced it recently – I had no desire to repeat this again at age 65.
    I love your program and listen to every episode along with recommending to all my friends and colleagues. I am a state public health professional and chair the IRB at the state health department. Thank you all for representing a reliable scientific resource for all of us interested in pursuing factual sources of valuable information.

  5. Wylie Garvin Nov 23, 2020

    At about 12:00 in episode 684, Dr. Griffin mentions that there was “no severe covid in any if the 15,000 vaccinated individuals… 100% efficacious for severe disease, so far”. This was surely a joke, right? One he should NOT have made, especially after his admonition at the beginning of the episode to be careful with our words! If it was not a joke, then he was claiming 100% efficacy IN A SAMPLE SIZE OF FIVE PATIENTS who were vaccinated and developed covid. Lets wait a few more weeks until we have at least a few dozen covid cases in the vaccine group before making claims about what fraction of those people end up getting severe covid!

    I love the show, it is my go-to for truthful info about covid and the surrounding science. Huge thankyou to Daniel, Vincent and the other TWiV hosts for all the time and effort you spend sharing your expertise and your love of science with all of us.

    Sincerely,
    Wylie Garvin
    (Just a video game developer, BC, Canada)

  6. Jeffery Biss Nov 24, 2020

    Religion is by default based on faith and rejects evidence and fact. Therefore Bishop Joseph Brennan has no interest in the reality of vaccine manufacture and so has not engaged in any fact finding effort that would have provided the information that Vincent discusses starting at 2:11:00. Reality simply doesn’t matter to these people and you’ll never get through to them as faith is what matters, not reality, as reality is simply a test of their faith.

  7. Janet Nov 26, 2020

    Hi,
    same message, different email address.
    Hi,
    A listener’s email brought up the neanderthal inheritance and severity question from a previous TWIV episode. I looked at the time to see if there seemed to be greater disease burden in e.g Bangladesh which you’d expect if there was a strong correlation.
    Which there doesn’t seem to be, per worldometer and other sources (local press – I’d link to what I read but it seems that my link habit gets me moderated into the ether!).
    There was an interesting connection that I found which may say something about the spread of Neanderthal inheritance to this region. The Neanderthal specimen was from easten Europe I believe and there was also introduction of a staple crop from that region later on- presumably via trade and this may have been accompanied by population mixing and faamine survival in those adopting this crop (especially through familial culture) may have concentrated that inheritance in regions of the subcontinent. The crop is the grasspea Lathyrus Sativus:
    ‘Lathyrus sativus originated from the Balkan Peninsula in the early Neolithic age. It may have been the first domesticated crop in Europe around 6000 BCE. Grass pea is now widely cultivated and naturalized in many areas of southern, central and eastern Europe, around the Mediterranean Basin and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grass pea is an economically important crop in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia (Campbell, 1997)’
    Re South Africa- in The Scientist November 1st 2020 there is a useful article about BCG etc and immune training effects of some vaccines titled ‘How some vaccines protect against more than their targets’.

  8. janet Nov 26, 2020

    Hi,
    …so I have a problem.
    Much as I enjoy your programme, it is getting a bit perplexing- to say the least- to find that I can’t comment!
    I can’t think what the problem is due to. On Win 10, from the UK; comments do not contain swear/cuss words or insults of any type;
    I have not included links in my last attempts in case that was triggering ‘spam’ detection.
    I have tried using both my email addresses.
    I honestly don’t know what to do. It’s upsetting.
    Obviously if ‘awaiting moderation’ means the comments will eventually be read and posted then this will reassure others who find themselves with the same problem…on the other hand if this is never published I will just have to assume that something in what I write is not acceptable to somebody somewhere?
    If that obstacle happens pre-TWIV, you guys can’t know so there is no way for me to know if you are aware of this issue or not. Or to get any resolution.
    And certainly not to participate in any way.
    My father-in-law who was 10 at the tim of the Spanish Civil War had a saying about prison in Franco dictatorship: “Ni son todos los que estan, ni estan todos los que son”
    That is: not all in there are criminals, nor all that are criminals are in there…

    What a world.

  9. Les Faby Dec 5, 2020

    Paul Offit mentions this episode
    at 27.24 in “Dr. Paul Offit Answers Our COVID Vaccine Questions” of the ZDoggMD video podcast. He has a large audience of Nurses and Doctors that Offit wanted to reach. (queued to the mention)
    Around this part he gives a simple explanation of what diseases you vaccinate against are expected to give sterilizing immunity. It is a race between memory T cells spinning up and how long infection normally leads to disease. A long incubation period, like for measles, gives time for your immune system to react.
    A short one, like for flu, means flu can make you contagious even if your immune system easily defeats the disease. SARS2 seems to have an incubation period between these 2.
    My mental model is there is a race between the speed of the virus and your adaptive immune system. Without a vaccine, you both start at the same starting line. With vaccine or previous exposure, you are given a big head start.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho2VRaIzj28&feature=youtu.be&t=1644
    (posted 2020/12/04)