COVID-19 Q&A with A&V Livestream 8/25/21

Virologists Amy Rosenfeld and Vincent Racaniello answer your COVID-19 questions (or any virus questions) on this livestream of 8/25/21.

[tonaruch]

Vincent wins the calm and patient award!

[audreylaferriere]

I enjoyed Amy. Her drinking wine. Finally, someone is acting normal.

[lukemreese]

Awesome start to the stream. Love the music!

[kittimcmeel]

Amy got up on the wrong side of the bed
I saw the splash screen and Amy was side by side

[marg]

Truth: “Sometimes that defining moment could be years.” -Dr Amy

[t.c.s.]

I love how you both fearlessly question authority and expert opinion. The doomsayers are so predictable and dull. I much prefer your podcasts. Thanks for posting.

[Oughut]

Hilarious!! 🤣 You guys are the Ernie and Bert of Virology.

[justylex]

I follow Monica Ghandi on Twitter, and I have never actually heard her say ‘colonization’. She often posts about the difference between infection and disease. And she stresses how important cellular immunity is over antibody immunity, which she says is normal to wane. She pretty much agrees with Vincent and Amy on everything they are saying about vaccine effectiveness, boosters, T cells etc.

[anatolyl]

23:49 Israeli decision to give the 3rd dose was based on hospitalizations and deaths data overtime for elderly vaccinated vs non vaccinated. When Vaccine Effectiveness fell below 70% for hospitalizations and deaths - they decided to give the 3rd shot to the elderly. They didn't pay attention to the infection rates when the decision was made.

In UK: current numbers for hospitalizations and deaths Vaccine Effectiveness for 50+ (August 2-15) 75% for hospitalizations and 74% for deaths. Infection numbers are similar to vaccinated vs non vaccinated (13% difference).

[samheumann]

your views and presentation of data is so refreshing!

[dominicpascal]

It was either a rough night or on the vino. Haha Amy is in a baaaad mood.

[nailbomb]

hahaha, there's no "thingy"!

keeping it real.

[Sliverth]

Thanks for another good discussion. Please, no apologies needed for repeating the same things over and over. Speaking for myself, doing this with Covid information helps it stick in my worried and sometimes confused head. So, thank you for repeating.

[Polkadotpup]

You guys are hysterical. Much better than a boring podcast. You’re both just great!

[listening]

You guys are a great team, and the comedy is increasing weekly!

[lezaarthur]

Amy needs a glass of wine in her hand 🍷🍷🍷LOL😎

[patriciahoke]

There was such intense focus on who got what when, with the vaccine rollout. At one point, I was thinking they needed to vaccinate in clusters to prevent group outbreaks. I wonder if that is something to consider for the future.

[rasmasyean]

01:20:23 Not all asymptomatics have (measurable) antibodies, however, they all have T-Cell memory. In addition, "uninfected close contacts" also develop some measurable T-Cell memory indicating that they've been exposed, but never progressed to "infection" which is defined as an exponential growth of virus. There is very good data on this here:

"Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 generates T-cell memory in the absence of a detectable viral infection"

[rasmasyean]

00:43:23 Daniel said 1 in 5 vaccinated symptomatic "breakthroughs" (sue me) go on to develop long COVID. That's kinda like symptoms without being infectious.

[patriciahoke]

I tried to ask about neutralizing antibodies in the chat -- In response to Richard Finney, minute 44:17, Amy responds, regarding an antibody test, that she doesn't really know (or care) what total spike antibody level means (presumably to spike). She says you can have high level that interact and yet virus is not neutralized and less antibodies that can neutralize. Or something like that. Does anyone have a link that discusses this in more detail?