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SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

wwwnc.cdc.gov

21–30 of 292 posts

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#21
post #3

"No clinically severe COVID-19 (1) was observed, and no patient was hospitalized" In other words, this case study is a relatively ordinary result in line with what we know: that the major COVID-19 vaccines greatly reduce the chance of severe illness but leave nontrivial chance of infection and transmission.

I suppose those miners are strong healthy men, wouldnt we expect the same results if they were exposed to the virus while being not-vaccinated? > In other words, this case study is a relatively ordinary result in line with what we know: that the major COVID-19 vaccines greatly reduce the chance of severe illness but leave nontrivial chance of infection and transmission. I dont think this particular case is a proof of…

From the study: "Mine workers were mostly men (42/44); median age was 53.3 years. Eighteen of the workers had risk factors for severe COVID-19: high blood pressure (11/44), diabetes mellitus (4/44), or obesity (4/44)."

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#22
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure if you don't think permanent social distancing and mask wearing is not a problem. The severity of mild covid is still potentially long lasting and I'm willing to guess elderly aren't going to handle it well. Letting covid become endemic could reduce our life expecty considerably.

> Sure if you don't think permanent social distancing and mask wearing is not a problem. I'm confused by this comment. I do think they are a problem, that's why I am encouraged by a vaccine that reduces covid to something that is not life threatening and that we can stop freaking out about.

It always was that for the vast majority of people.

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose those miners are strong healthy men, wouldnt we expect the same results if they were exposed to the virus while being not-vaccinated? > In other words, this case study is a relatively ordinary result in line with what we know: that the major COVID-19 vaccines greatly reduce the chance of severe illness but leave nontrivial chance of infection and transmission. I dont think this particular case is a proof of…

From the study: "Mine workers were mostly men (42/44); median age was 53.3 years. Eighteen of the workers had risk factors for severe COVID-19: high blood pressure (11/44), diabetes mellitus (4/44), or obesity (4/44)."

What is your point? You are not comparing against the general population to see if there is a difference.

Also from the study:

> Such a low vaccine efficiency against infection by the Gamma variant was not expected because in vitro studies have shown a similar reduction of neutralization for Beta or Gamma variants by BNT162b2-elicited antibodies (5) and a conserved CD4+ T-cell response against spike proteins from the Beta variant (6).

So, no, this was not "business as usual", in fact the results are so shocking that the investigators wrote:

> Given the surprisingly high attack rate, we hypothesized potential dysfunctions of conservation or administration of vaccines, but the absence of traceable cold-chain interruption and the use of different batches seemed to refute this hypothesis.

So the study so far suggests that the Pfizer vaccines may well have an actual low effectivenes rate against this virus variant.

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the study: "Mine workers were mostly men (42/44); median age was 53.3 years. Eighteen of the workers had risk factors for severe COVID-19: high blood pressure (11/44), diabetes mellitus (4/44), or obesity (4/44)."

What is your point? You are not comparing against the general population to see if there is a difference. Also from the study: > Such a low vaccine efficiency against infection by the Gamma variant was not expected because in vitro studies have shown a similar reduction of neutralization for Beta or Gamma variants by BNT162b2-elicited antibodies (5) and a conserved CD4+ T-cell response against spike proteins from the…

It was in response to "I suppose those miners are strong healthy men"

They were not. They were obese and hypertensive. That is unhealty no matter what vaccines you take.

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brain damage after vaccine, or "mild" disease in vaccinated people? can you point to that MRI imaging? curious to see.

This is the major one: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690v... This one scared me since it was a large, relatively unbiased sample, with before-and-after imaging. It also showed brain damage even in mild cases of COVID19 in >10% of cases. There are a lot of supporting smaller-scale studies too, replicating the same general result. E.g. https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid…

I couldn't find where it talks about vaccinated patients in the study you linked.

It's not surprising that covid19 can cause brain damage (and heart damage, and death) to unvaccinated people.

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#26
"Mine workers were mostly men (42/44); median age was 53.3 years. Eighteen of the workers had risk factors for severe COVID-19: high blood pressure (11/44), diabetes mellitus (4/44), or obesity (4/44)."

"The overall attack rate was 54.5% (24/44); 87% were symptomatic, 65% with fever, and 22.6% with dyspnea. No clinically severe COVID-19 (1) was observed, and no patient was hospitalized."

This make sense. If more severe variants are more damaging (i.e. more severe symptoms, death, etc.) they are less likely to persist. The less harmful variants are more likely to carry on.

At the extrene, for example, look at Ebola. It's quick and it's deadly. Consequently, it burns out. On the other hand, a longer asymptomatic incubation period - long enough to get on a plane - and Ebola is going to be big trouble.

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Severe Illness: Individuals who have SpO2 30 breaths/min, or lung infiltrates >50%. Isn't the point that levels below severe are not generally fatal and don't require hospitalization. Nobody thinks it's good to get sick, but it generally ceases to be a threat to public health with vaccination.

Sure if you don't think permanent social distancing and mask wearing is not a problem. The severity of mild covid is still potentially long lasting and I'm willing to guess elderly aren't going to handle it well. Letting covid become endemic could reduce our life expecty considerably.

Isn't covid already endemic?

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brain damage after vaccine, or "mild" disease in vaccinated people? can you point to that MRI imaging? curious to see.

This is the major one: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690v... This one scared me since it was a large, relatively unbiased sample, with before-and-after imaging. It also showed brain damage even in mild cases of COVID19 in >10% of cases. There are a lot of supporting smaller-scale studies too, replicating the same general result. E.g. https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid…

That first pre-print is wild. 8 pages of methods for 8 pages of results (incl. figures). Quite a "pipeline."

Re: SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant infected 16 fully Pfizer vaccinated Guiana gold miners

#30
post #4

Fully vaccinated individuals getting infected shouldn't be all that surprising. The phase 3 trials of Pfizer and Moderna saw a 95% reduction in severe symptoms. No routine testing for infection was done, only testing if someone showed symptoms. Singapore's gov't is tracking all of their infections and 80% of the population has had 1 shot, 50% fully vaccinated (Pfizer and Moderna). They've had 1096 cases in the last 2…

I feel like a 60% attack rate among fully vaccinated people in one outbreak is pretty chilling, though. Like I'm glad they didn't have severe illness but this news is disappointing. Delta seems to heavily dominate in Singapore [0], and they don't seem to have Gamma at all. The outbreak in this article was Gamma. This study doesn't jive well with the in-vitro tests of vaccinated serum against gamma and the numbers we'…

I wouldn't read too much into the 50% being fully vaccinated. Front-line workers (both medical and retail) are most likely to be exposed versus someone unvaccinated. In addition, as vaccination rates go up, you'd expect to see more fully vaccinated people test positive since there are so few unvaccinated people.

Not sure why I got downvoted - this is exactly what we expected - the vaccine protects against serious disease, not necessarily infection. We have some data showing that vaccinated people have a reduced risk of infection, but it's still a significant risk.

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