I agree that the study doesn’t make any further predictions or extrapolations—which is as it should be.

Why do I have any concerns? (Let me emphasize: my concerns are mild; I just think the findings are unsettling but my mind is very much still open). This study shows that the novel mRNA vaccine/treatment has been shown to change the immune system in a way that the traditionally-developed Covid vaxes do not. Why is that? I don’t know and neither does anyone else. Maybe it’s the best thing since sliced bread and the invention of the cherry Popsicle; maybe it’s neutral; or maybe it’s an unexpected finding that will have negative consequences.

I don’t know why the finding troubles you. I read the link you gave, and the authors say that the mRNA COVID vaccines, “are efficient preventive measures to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic”. They also wrote: “In conclusion, repeated vaccination improved antibody effector functions mediated through the variable domain.” They add, at the end of the abstract:

Importantly, this class switch was associated with a reduced capacity of the spike-specific antibodies to mediate antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis and complement deposition. Since Fc-mediated effector functions are critical for antiviral immunity, these findings may have consequences for the choice and timing of vaccination regimens using mRNA vaccines, including future booster immunizations against SARS-CoV-2.

What they mean there, in my opinion, is not about generalized immunity to viruses, but about immunity to COVID, and it only has to do with the “choice and timing” of vaccine regimens, and only possibly (“MAY have consequences”). In the body of the study they talk about whether a different timing of vaccines might lead to even stronger immunity. There is no suggestion that there is some problem with immunity (generalized immunity or immunity to COVID) in vaccinated versus UNvaccinated individuals.

They add:

In a cohort of vaccinees with breakthrough infections, we did not obtain any evidence for an alteration of disease severity, which was mild in almost all of our cases.

There is nothing in the entire article to suggest anything alarming other than the fact that there might be (accent on the “might”) a kind of diminishing return with more boosters. And even that isn’t as compared to unvaccinated individuals; it’s just that boosters aren’t all they were initially cracked up to be.

I could have specified, for instance, that of course I understand that I am being exposed to more viruses now—but that’s why I included the fact of my relative non-exposure to viruses until about six months ago. My immune system like everyone else’s has not gotten a normal amount of exposure for the past three years and that makes me more vulnerable to catching anything.

Also, I was careful to couch my conclusion in very tentative terms: given the vicious unending viral infections I have suffered from in the past four months, am I wrong to even SUSPECT that my immune system may be compromised by something? I don’t conclude that my system is damaged, and I don’t conclude that if it has been compromised, it’s definitely caused by mRNA vaxes.

Thank you for the link to a research paper discussing some of the data and misinformation around the mRNA vaxes and hypothesized damage therefrom. I read the paper and as far as I could tell as a non-expert layperson, it didn’t deal with the study I had read about.

The study I was thinking of came out just late last month in PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36548397/

From the abstract: “Here, we report that several months after the second vaccination, SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies were increasingly composed of noninflammatory IgG4, which were further boosted by a third mRNA vaccination and/or SARS-CoV-2 variant breakthrough infections. IgG4 antibodies among all spike-specific IgG antibodies rose, on average, from 0.04% shortly after the second vaccination to 19.27% late after the third vaccination. This induction of IgG4 antibodies was not observed after homologous or heterologous SARS-CoV-2 vaccination with adenoviral vectors.” (the last bit you probably already know means that this “class switch” in antibodies was not observed in non-mRNA vaccines such as the AstraZeneca). The conclusion of the paper: ” Because Fc-mediated effector functions are critical for antiviral immunity, these findings may have consequences for the choice and timing of vaccination regimens using mRNA vaccines, including future booster immunizations against SARS-CoV-2.”

I think this is a troubling finding and hope that science will follow up on this vigorously. My mind is open.

You are reasoning from confirmation bias about the cause of your problems. You yourself say you’ve been more exposed to viruses lately; and of course you’re also older. I’ve had mild viruses and severe viruses all my life and not really tracked them, but I have had them before COVID and after COVID.

You write, “thought it has been established by recent studies that those who have been vaxxed have had their immune-system antibody composition changed radically?” No, it has not. I could spend hours showing you article after article on this. I’m not going to spend hours, though. I’ll just cite this one.

The recent research showed levels of IgG4 has increased from just a few percentage points of a healthy IgG balance, to over 20%! The ratio changes in direct relation to the number of jabs one has had.

Now the dreaded personal anecdote (and yes I totally get the limitations thereof): I have had a relatively reclusive lifestyle for the past few years for a variety of reasons. Beginning last year after the birth of our grandson, I have been flying to Texas on a regular basis and thus exposed to a lot more contagious diseases than I had been. I traveled there in early November and caught something that gave me immediate total laryngitis plus some cold symptoms. Took me weeks to get over it. I then got the Commie Crud (for the first time) in December after a night out at a local bar—ironically that was the least symptomatic of my recent illnesses. Back to Texas in early February, where I caught some kind of URI that has absolutely floored me: I have a sinus infection, ear infection, fatigue, sore throat, and unrelenting cough. I began antibiotics last week and am better but still coughing and am functionally deaf due to fluid remaining in ears. But wait, there’s more—as the last infection began to wane this week, my husband brought home another virus that begins with painfully swollen sore throat, and now I have that!

Tell me I’m wrong to suspect that there’s a not-insignificant chance that my immune system has been greatly weakened by SOMETHING; perhaps by a so-far-as-researchers-know permanent change caused by the two initial and one booster doses I’ve gotten of the mRNA treatment.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html

I got that vibe sometimes about distant strangers who expressed themselves very . . . oddly . . . online. I can’t say that’s the impression I got from my own neighbors and relatives who believed fervently in masks and mandates. They genuinely believed those measures would work and were essential. I think they made a horribly wrong judgment about trading off the supposed efficacy against respect for others’ right to make their own medical decisions, but I don’t think they were cackling and rubbing their hands together over the chance to bully people.

Not that I oppose gene therapy, either, but I would expect a robust and transparent debate over any particular proposed gene therapy, considering the risks as we feel our way through this new technology.

Which kids and which vaccines?