Anti-Vaxxers Lie About VigiAccess/FluMist & More
Today’s Medium article will go into the following claims made on social media where AV laypersons claim that Strep A is an active ingredient within FluMist, this claim originates from Twitter & Facebook posts from a fabricated edited image. I’ll also address other things about Strep A and how prior Covid-19 infection can lower the immune system too. So without further ado, let’s get into the article.
➡️️ Context
This image below has been falsely edited to state Strep A is an active ingredient.
VigiAccess is a tool to help search VigiBase, a global database set up by WHO to report potential side effects of medical products. Upon further investigation on the website, the VigiAccess states the following — “VigiAccess cannot be used to infer confirmed link between a suspected side effect & any specific medicine [1]”. In addition, FluMist uses a live attenuated [2][3] weakened version of the Influenza virus, there is no Strep A bacteria within the FluMist vaccine, more can be found at the link here or see [4].
References: [1] https://www.vigiaccess.org/
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/nasalspray.htm
[3] https://www.hhs.gov/immunization/basics/types/index.html
[4] https://www.flumistquadrivalent.com/nasal-spray-flu-vaccine.html
➡️️ Anti-vaxxers misinterpret a study completely
A study posted to ASM Journals [1] has been fully misinterpreted by anti-vaxxers as the paper shows no causal link between Group A Sprepacoccus and FluMist, also there is no mention of Group A Streptococcus within the study. This is why if you have no idea what you’re talking about, maybe it’s best not to share anything unless you know it’s true.
Another word for Strep A is Streptococcus pyogenes [2], which was not investigated at all within the study, a single Ctrl+F search for Strep A in the ASM study will yield no results as shown below.
Furthermore, Strep A is different to Streptococcus pneumoniae, a comparison study found that Strep A was worse in pleural effusion (a catch-all term to describe any abnormal accumulation of fluid in the pleural cavity [4]) and morbidity (the incident rate of a disease).
References: [1] https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01040-13
[2] https://publications.aap.org/pediatricsinreview/article-abstract/39/8/379/31982/Group-A-Streptococcus?redirectedFrom=fulltext
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17072122/
[4] https://radiopaedia.org/articles/pleural-effusion
➡️️ Covid immunosuppression post-infection
Many studies confirm growing scientific evidence that Covid-19 infection impacts the immune system, thus some people can get immunosuppression post-infection, which will open individuals up to easily getting more infections.
The studies:
- A study published in ScienceDirect shows Asymptomatic infection in kids in the nostrils which could open up to further infections, this could explain Strep A which we are seeing in kids right now. [1]
- COVID-19 impairs the immune response to Candida Albicans including showing signs of T-cell exhaustion. [2]
- “The team found that profound alterations in many immune cell types often persisted for weeks or even months after SARS-CoV-2 infection.” [3] For context this was within Long-covid patients where post-infection of Covid-19 found serious alterations to immune cell components, making it harder to fight off infections.
- A large body of evidence suggests that the first infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated with an increased risk of acute and post-acute death and sequelae in the pulmonary and broad array of extrapulmonary organ systems. [4]
- Immune system dysfunction persists after 8 months following mild or moderate infection, another study confirmed that immunosuppression from Covid-19 can lead to other illnesses taking over with little fightback from the immune system. [5]
- Coronaviruses increase the susceptibility to Strep. [6]
- Covid infects and kills dendritic & lymphocyte cells. [7]
- In the Covid-recovered, there is a total absence of CD22-CD45 interaction; a whole subset missing! This is in addition to dysregulated B cell maturation. Missing naive B and T cells are important when a host meets a pathogen for the first time. If they are absent, when a host encounters a new pathogen, the immune response is weakened. Naive cells are of greater importance to children. Which could explain the rise in RSV, Flu & Strep. [8]
References: [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1808869422001392
[2] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.640644/full
[3] https://www.ukri.org/news-and-events/tackling-the-impact-of-covid-19/understanding-coronavirus-covid-19-and-epidemics/the-immune-system-and-long-covid/#:~:text=In%20long%20COVID%20patients%20report,SARS%2DCoV%2D2%20infection
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x?s=09
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168281/
[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1808869422001392
[8] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1034159/full
➡️️ RSV post-infection study showing a surge in infections
- Surges in viral respiratory infections can absolutely result in downstream surges in invasive bacterial disease. “Our group has demonstrated this for both pneumococcal and meningococcal disease downstream from influenza and meaning downstream from RSV.” [1]
- A 4.3x increased risk after RSV and 2x increased risk after influenza activity for meningococcal disease. [2]
References: [1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2768232
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21103353/
➡️️ Conclusion
Strep A has no causal association as an active ingredient in FluMist. Covid-19 can create immunosuppression in post-infectious people leaving at greater risk of future infection.
💥 Thanks for reading, Lawrence. Please consider a small contribution, in the form of a beer as all articles are created in my small amount of spare time: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LawrenceRob