Immune escape: The reason the vaxxed get COVID-19

Pfizer should be 95% effective, Moderna 94%, AstraZeneca 90%, Johnson & Johnson 66%, and CoronaVac 50%. If they are that effective, why are vaccinated people still getting COVID-19 even with 2 doses?

First, let us look at countries where the majority are vaccinated. Notice that the COVID-19 cases were high during the Winter 2020-2021, went down as the vaccinations start, and then went up again beginning June 2021.

Gibraltar

As of July 30, 116% of the population of Gibraltar has been fully vaccinated.

Iceland

74.56% fully vaccinated, 4.29% partial, Total 78.85%

Israel

62.15% fully vaccinated. 4.73% partially vaccinated total 66.90%

United Kingdom

56.66% fully vaccinated, 12.39% partially vaccinated. Total 69.05% vaccinated

Speaking of the UK, look at the Technical Briefing 17 of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England published June 25, 2021

The table above breaks down the COVID-19 cases among those who were vaccinated and unvaccinated. Focus your attention on the Received 2 doses column from the right and the multiple horizontal rows of >50 of Age groups (years).

The >50 years old who received 2 doses of vaccine are 3,546 compared to 976 unvaccinated.

The > 50 years old vaccinated are 3.6 times more likely to get infected than the unvaccinated.

In the different categories of Cases with emergency visits, Cases were presented to emergency care resulted in overnight inpatient admission and Deaths within 28 days of positive specimen date. A greater number of patients that received 2 doses died than unvaccinated.

How can that be? How can the SARS-CoV-2 evade the immune response?

SARS CoV-2 immune escape

Immune escape, also called antigenic escape, immune evasion, or escape mutation, is when the infected person’s immune system cannot respond adequately to an infection.

To understand immune escape, let us do some basic science.

Viruses contain proteins. SARS-CoV-2 has different proteins in the envelope, the nucleocapsid, the middle part, and the spike proteins.

The genetic sequence to make a new virus is composed of a nucleotide chain. A set of three nucleotides translate into a protein. Once the viruses enter the nucleus of an infected person’s cell, the virus starts to replicate or make copies of itself. The rate of replication is exponential.

During the copying phase of the nucleotide, errors can happen. Insertions or deletions in the nucleotide chain can happen. These changes are called mutations.

A change in the nucleotide sequence of proteins can affect protein folding and change the final overall shape of the bigger protein—the spike protein, for example.

The final shape is important because the shape dictates whether that protein becomes functional. Protein shapes also influence the antibody response of the host.

If the shape of the spike protein is familiar to the hosts’ antibodies, then the antibodies will attach to that spike protein and the virus becomes neutralized., Thus no disease occurs.

If the mutation causes a change in the spike protein shape, then the formed antibodies may not recognize that new protein. The virus may survive to infect another cell, replicate, cause cellular destruction, affecting the organ function (like the lungs). Then the disease manifests thru signs and symptoms.

Hundreds of viruses can turn into millions. Millions of viruses can develop several million mutations. However, not all mutations are favorable to its survival, but the ones that do, allow the virus to replicate more.

So even if 70% of mutations will not produce a viable virus, the rest of the 30% of the mutations may be able to provide a virus that will allow it to survive and reproduce some more. Keep in mind that viral mutations always happen.

The changes in the spike protein are not the only way for the virus to evade immunity.

There is more to the immune system than antibodies, and the SARS-CoV-2 can find a way to escape them. The SARS-CoV-2 can:

Inhibit interferons and manipulates cytokines leading to impaired innate immunity and T- cell responses.
Limit Pattern Recognition Receptor activation
Neutrophil extracellular traps or NETS can form and initiate inflammation and thrombosis. (This is why Vitamin C is needed. Vitamin C prevents NETS from forming)
Reduces peripheral natural killer cells.
Targets dendritic cells directly – impairment of T cell activation
Deletions in the nucleotide sequence of the Receptor Binding Domain change the spike protein’s structure and prevent antibodies developed from previous spike proteins from attaching to it. (Described above)

That sounds scary; however, all is not lost. The immune system has several layers of protection. That is why not all who get reinfected develop severe disease.

Immune system redundancies and back-ups

Think of the immune system as a series of walls surrounding a castle. Each layer should be breached before the invaders take over the castle.

Even in the absence of neutralizing antibody immunity, there’s still cellular immunity from cytotoxic lymphocytes, including T and natural killer (NK) cells.

T cell immunity against the other proteins of SARS-CoV-2 like the nucleocapsid can still provide infection.

But once again, viruses can find a way around the other immune system, as enumerated above. That is why there are still people who get diseased.

The most important thing is to achieve and maintain an excellent immune system so that the whole immune system will be working at peak performance.

Taking supplements like Vitamin C, Zinc, Thiamine, and Vitamin D also optimizes the immune response.

If COVID-19 symptoms develop, early treatment with the MATH + Protocol is necessary.

Knowledge about Covid-19 is rapidly evolving. Information may update as new studies are made. Stay current by subscribing. Feel free to share and like.

Don’t Get Sick!

References:

Taefehshokr N, Taefehshokr S, Hemmat N, Heit B. Covid-19: Perspectives on Innate Immune Evasion. Front Immunol. 2020 Sep 30;11:580641. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.580641. PMID: 33101306; PMCID: PMC7554241.
Garcia-Beltran WF, Lam EC, St-Denis K, et al. Multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants escape neutralization by vaccine-induced humoral immunity [published correction appears in Cell. 2021 Apr 29;184(9):2523]. Cell. 2021;184(9):2372-2383.e9. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.013
Rates of vaccinations of different countries from https://ourworldindata.org/
Graphs from https://www.worldometers.info/

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