She co-authored the Sekine et al study: Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild Covid-19.
They're proposing that mild Covid-19 cases can produce strong T cell response lasting for years that could lead to population-level immunity (absent antibodies). Interestingly, memory T cell immunity lasting for over 10 yrs was observed from SARS-CoV-1 in mice models.
So, something positively is going on here if their deaths & hospitalizations have plummeted to almost nothing. Looking at that footage from Stockholm, I see virtually no social distancing (restaurants, malls & particularly in the classrooms) and maybe one or two people wearing masks.
This should be exciting to help curb this fear & hysteria from the MSM that Covid-19 is all doom & gloom. If Swedes are not wearing masks and not social distancing, and their deaths & hospitalizations are down (and remain flat moving forward into the fall), this could possibly suggest a direction toward population-level immunity I would think.
Thank you. I did post that Cell paper upthread. The big takeaway is that serology numbers are almost surely an underestimate of the number of people who were infected. But this is one of my pet peeves about scientists talking to the media. They often make claims that go well beyond what they say to their peers. Does this really sound conclusive to anyone? Or as definitive as what she is claiming in that interview?
Our study was cross-sectional in nature and limited in terms of clinical follow-up and overall donor numbers in each outcome-defined group. It therefore remains to be determined if robust memory T cell responses in the absence of detectable circulating antibodies can protect against severe forms of COVID-19.
Or this?
Of note, we detected cross-reactive T cell responses against spike or membrane in 28% of the unexposed healthy blood donors, consistent with a high degree of preexisting immune responses potentially induced by other coronaviruses.....Although we detected generally broader and stronger T cell responses in seronegative convalescent and exposed individuals compared to unexposed donors, it remains possible that a fraction of the anamnestic SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response was initially induced by seasonal coronaviruses (Mateus et al., 2020). The biological relevance of cross-reactive T cell responses remains unclear.
Don't get me wrong, the T cell data that has come out in recent high tier publications is very promising. But we are really talking about two separate issues. T cell memory in people infected looks to be present in most cases. I doubt the cross-reactive T cell memory is going to prevent an infection with COVID-19, but it might provide some benefit in terms of outcomes. Also, Mice don't live for 10 years. (Scientists who work with animals would LOL at the thought of housing per diems for that experiment.) Are you sure that they weren't talking about humans who survived SARS 1.0?
Part of what has worked in Sweden is that they are a generally healthy population with a lot of people in single occupancy housing. And they have a climate where summers can be spent outdoors and not rely on AC for their interior spaces. They are an ideal test case to try a more relaxed approach. I would just caution against extrapolating their numbers to the USA. Or to assume that they have beat the virus. As hrotha has noted, compare what they have done to their Scandinavian neighbors first and foremost.
I'll listen to the link at lunch, but is it crazy or what that the new top advisor on disease is a radiologist?! On top of that he's a radiologist who likes the idea of herd immunity...hence the reason he got a job that he is not qualified for.
EDIT: I got a quick 10 minute snippet...wow, this guy thinks that he is special. No wonder he got the job! He did back a way from herd immunity a bit, but then went on to lecture the infectious disease community on not understanding it.
Atlas has impeccable credentials for radiology. Most people do not achieve his level of stature without being very confident in the sound of their own voices. He is where he is for the most obvious reasons. His strategy seems to be protect the vulnerable and open the rest. He may not want to admit the terminology, but what else is he proposing here?
It was really a hack-ish performance. The most eye-rolling part is when he talks about the excess deaths being the best comparison but still uses the lower 180K figure when it suits. Or when he claims to want to look only at the future and not dwell on the past. Convenient thinking.