After seeing studies like this, and how the shingles vaccine reduces dimensia, I have become increasingly convinced that it’s bad to get almost any disease, even transiently. I used to think that it was kind of good to train your immune system (kind of whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger). I no longer believe that. I believe that diseases often cause unknown effects and it’s better to avoid disease entirely, that vaccines are actually more beneficial than current studies show in this regard, and new universal vaccines to prevent the common cold and flu will likely have significant health span improvements over time beyond the acute prevention of symptoms.
having posted on this topic for years, your comment is the first I’ve seen come to this rational conclusion. usually people double down on their original perspective
I came to the same conclusion and normally i don’t write about it. Beiing one of the few who pays 250€ to get my family vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 every year here in Germany (i have to pay because our „StIKo“ doesn’t recommend the vaccination) kind of makes me hesitant to talk about it.
I am now pretty certain every virus we have ever caught is just smouldering in our body somewhere constantly held in check by the immune system. We seem to just accumulate ever increasing issues until our body can't cope anymore and become symptomatic with damage and then ultimately die. We have had a huge blindspot for the damage viruses are doing to people, I doubt any infection leaves us.
The research from Covid is just finding so much evidence for tissue resident viral infection and prior work on ME/CFS autopsies showed other viruses doing similar in the brain. Catching anything is bad for our health.
That's probably assuming too much persistence for some infections. Virus detection in autopsies has been around for a while.[1] But it's not routine. At least HIV, malaria, yellow fever, rabies, and hepatitis have been tested. So there's data to look at, not just belief.
It's established that COVID can persist in tissue/blood - particularly in immunocompromised patients - and is associated with long COVID [1]. This abstract only reports a cut-off of >60 days from COVID infection, so it's hard to know how many of these deceased patients are truly outside the acute infection phase.
Although this research area is the most promising avenue for long COVID -- wrt biologic rationale -- the major anti-viral trials for long COVID were negative.
STOP-PASC trial [2] and PAXLC [3] were both 15-day courses of Paxlovid and showed no benefit across patient reported outcomes.
The real question however, is whether anti-virals have benefit in patients with active viral replication. Like only cases of long COVID can be implicated to viral persistence.
STOP-PASC did collect stool PCR at baseline, but every tested sample was negative. PAX LC later reported a exploratory biomarker analysis of 82 PAX LC participants did measure circulating SARS-CoV-2 S1 and full-length Spike, and wasn't powered to find a difference. Notably, spike presence doesn't necessarily mean active viral replication [4].
As an aside, mchusma's post is probably right. Viral disease is not being associated with more and more long term diseases. EBV is being linked to MS, cervical cancer to HPV, and so on.
they’ve done 15 days all null and the 25 day one was null but has some unique labs they tested but haven’t posted yet.
Paxlovid does something to antiviral genes and shows there’s something there though in secondary analysis (not posted but has been presented at conferences)
sadly Paxlovid doesn’t actually get rid of the viral pieces remaining and a PROTAC or other therapy might be necessary to degrade the proteins.
Yeah, it seems that most people don't have active viral replication which is the only thing that Paxlovid works for (it literally jams up the "scissors" that cut the viral data for replication).
It seems to work in a small subset, but that's about it.
strongest evidence so far in gut and immune cells for living organisms.
They did find it in the brain of one patient when doing an unrelated procedure at the NIH. That could be due to many things though. General findings around the CSF/brain have been negative.
After seeing studies like this, and how the shingles vaccine reduces dimensia, I have become increasingly convinced that it’s bad to get almost any disease, even transiently. I used to think that it was kind of good to train your immune system (kind of whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger). I no longer believe that. I believe that diseases often cause unknown effects and it’s better to avoid disease entirely, that vaccines are actually more beneficial than current studies show in this regard, and new universal vaccines to prevent the common cold and flu will likely have significant health span improvements over time beyond the acute prevention of symptoms.
Isn't this exact idea a theme in Asimov's books?
I feel like doctors and physiology researchers have known this for some time.
having posted on this topic for years, your comment is the first I’ve seen come to this rational conclusion. usually people double down on their original perspective
I came to the same conclusion and normally i don’t write about it. Beiing one of the few who pays 250€ to get my family vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 every year here in Germany (i have to pay because our „StIKo“ doesn’t recommend the vaccination) kind of makes me hesitant to talk about it.
thats strange as I thought Germany is the one investing over the next decade in these conditions?
I am now pretty certain every virus we have ever caught is just smouldering in our body somewhere constantly held in check by the immune system. We seem to just accumulate ever increasing issues until our body can't cope anymore and become symptomatic with damage and then ultimately die. We have had a huge blindspot for the damage viruses are doing to people, I doubt any infection leaves us.
The research from Covid is just finding so much evidence for tissue resident viral infection and prior work on ME/CFS autopsies showed other viruses doing similar in the brain. Catching anything is bad for our health.
For Long COVID and the brain follow Danielle Beckman: https://bsky.app/profile/daniellebeckman.bsky.social
This is why I‘m excited for the attempt to vaccinate against the common cold and influenza: https://blog.interceptfund.com/p/ending-respiratory-infectio...
s/dimensia/dementia ?
That's probably assuming too much persistence for some infections. Virus detection in autopsies has been around for a while.[1] But it's not routine. At least HIV, malaria, yellow fever, rabies, and hepatitis have been tested. So there's data to look at, not just belief.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266652472...
ok, so posit this is true; are you going to now become a bubble boy?
It's established that COVID can persist in tissue/blood - particularly in immunocompromised patients - and is associated with long COVID [1]. This abstract only reports a cut-off of >60 days from COVID infection, so it's hard to know how many of these deceased patients are truly outside the acute infection phase.
Although this research area is the most promising avenue for long COVID -- wrt biologic rationale -- the major anti-viral trials for long COVID were negative.
STOP-PASC trial [2] and PAXLC [3] were both 15-day courses of Paxlovid and showed no benefit across patient reported outcomes.
The real question however, is whether anti-virals have benefit in patients with active viral replication. Like only cases of long COVID can be implicated to viral persistence.
STOP-PASC did collect stool PCR at baseline, but every tested sample was negative. PAX LC later reported a exploratory biomarker analysis of 82 PAX LC participants did measure circulating SARS-CoV-2 S1 and full-length Spike, and wasn't powered to find a difference. Notably, spike presence doesn't necessarily mean active viral replication [4].
As an aside, mchusma's post is probably right. Viral disease is not being associated with more and more long term diseases. EBV is being linked to MS, cervical cancer to HPV, and so on.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147330992... [2] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar... [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40188838 [4] www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.24.26347001v1.full
The science is interesting but I must admit I learned a new word today.
A deceased person is also a decedent. Adjective vs noun. Cool.
Yes, but deceased is also a noun. The Economist's Style Guide would not approve.
I'd be curious to look for any investigation into whether extended paxlovid treatment fixes a significant subset of long COVID.
they’ve done 15 days all null and the 25 day one was null but has some unique labs they tested but haven’t posted yet.
Paxlovid does something to antiviral genes and shows there’s something there though in secondary analysis (not posted but has been presented at conferences)
sadly Paxlovid doesn’t actually get rid of the viral pieces remaining and a PROTAC or other therapy might be necessary to degrade the proteins.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-025-02539-7
Yeah, it seems that most people don't have active viral replication which is the only thing that Paxlovid works for (it literally jams up the "scissors" that cut the viral data for replication).
It seems to work in a small subset, but that's about it.
Has this been found in other tissues?
strongest evidence so far in gut and immune cells for living organisms.
They did find it in the brain of one patient when doing an unrelated procedure at the NIH. That could be due to many things though. General findings around the CSF/brain have been negative.
Autopsy - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05542-y
Long covid - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...
Also this exists in both children and adults.
Iirc yes. Viral persistence and viral reservoirs are the terms to search for