As the U.S. inches closer to reaching herd immunity against COVID, many people are still holding out and refusing to get vaccinated. Latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 220.5 million Americans 12 and above have already been vaccinated against COVID. But some are convinced that the vaccines do more harm than good.
NOQ Report cites Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE), which is defined by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as an event that "occurs when the antibodies generated during an immune response recognize and bind to a pathogen, but they are unable to prevent infection." It is one of three scenarios that happens when a vaccinated person gets infected with the disease he or she is vaccinated against.
The first scenario is a mild illness in which the person can experience some symptoms, or a breakthrough illness in which people fall severely ill. The third scenario is ADE in which "the antibodies that the vaccine generated actually help the virus infect greater numbers of cells than it would have on its own."
The Blue State Conservative reported that as per a study published in December 2020, researchers Timothy Cardozo of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, NYU Langone Health, New York and Ronald Veazey of the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, found that "COVID-19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated."
The study also concluded that "vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralising antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID-19 disease via antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE)."
Alex Berenson reported on a U.K. study that revealed similar results. The report was filed "COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report Week 42" from the U.K. Health Security Agency, which tackled seropositivity.
Seropositivity is defined as having a positive reaction in the test for the presence of an antibody. the study tested samples with Roche nucleoprotein (N) and Roche spike (S) antibody assays. The study noted, "Nucleoprotein (Roche N) assays only detect post-infection antibodies, whereas spike (Roche S) assays will detect both post-infection antibodies and vaccine-induced antibodies."
Now, the report said that "Seropositivity estimates for S antibody in blood donors are likely to be higher than would be expected in the general population and this probably reflects the fact that donors are more likely to be vaccinated."
Seropositivity as measured by an S antibody (meaning from the spike) reflects both infection and vaccination. Meanwhile, "Seropositivity estimates for N antibody will underestimate the proportion of the population previously infected" because of one of three reasons. THe first reason is that the blood donors whose blood was tested were less likely to be exposed to a natural infection than age matched individuals in the general population.
Another reason is that the N antibody response wanes over time. The third reason, as observed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) surveillance data, is that the N antibody levels "appear to be lower in individuals who acquire infection following 2 doses of vaccination."
These N antibody levels that appear to be lower is because these people got the COVID vaccine. Note that the nucleoprotein N assays only detect post-infection antibodies, which may mean that the person who got vaccinated against COVID and then got a breakthrough infection has a lower rate of N antibody levels because he or she got a mild case of COVID.
