Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS. (2022, February 28). Damn, nice find https://t.co/cJRhB2k4zH [Tweet]. @fitterhappierAJ. https://twitter.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1498113886846914567

Levy, M., Recher, M., Hubert, H., Javouhey, E., Fléchelles, O., Leteurtre, S., & Angoulvant, F. (2022). Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children by COVID-19 Vaccination Status of Adolescents in France. JAMA, 327(3), 281–283. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.23262

Zambrano, L. D. (2022). Effectiveness of BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) mRNA Vaccination Against Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Among Persons Aged 12–18 Years—United States, July–December 2021. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 71. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7102e1

J.D, S. B., M. D. (n.d.). The Rate Of Covid-19 Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children Is Skyrocketing. Forbes. Retrieved 10 January 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2022/01/07/the-rate-of-covid-19-related-multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-mis-in-children-is-skyrocketing/

Lubell, M. (2021, December 9). Doctors weigh COVID-19 impact on children as vaccine drives ramp up. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/doctors-weigh-covid-19-impact-children-vaccine-drives-ramp-up-2021-12-09/

Seth Trueger. (2021, August 31). Https://t.co/GjeNhrdsIe [Tweet]. @MDaware. https://twitter.com/MDaware/status/1432815624665846002

Health Department-Reported Cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) in the United States ​ | CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/mis-c/cases/index.html

Some children present with severe secondary effects in response to COVID-19, similar to Kawasaki disease, termed multisystem inflammatory disease in children (MIS-C). MIS-C patients present with higher frequencies of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and lower levels of IL-17A, ESDN and TNF-β (1, 2, 3, 4). Additionally, children with MIS-C demonstrate an increase in IgG antibodies but low IgM antibodies (2). Data suggests that binding of autoantibodies to proteins involved in immune cell signalling and in within the vasculature might explain the autoimmune reactivity contributing to MIS-C pathology (2, 4).

1)Verdoni L, Mazza A, Gervasoni A, Martelli L, Ruggeri M, Ciuffreda M, et al. An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study. Lancet. 2020;395(10239):1771-8.

2)Consiglio CR, Cotugno N, Sardh F, Pou C, Amodio D, Rodriguez L, et al. The Immunology of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children with COVID-19. Cell. 2020;183(4):968-81 e7.

3) Vella L, Giles JR, Baxter AE, Oldridge DA, Diorio C, Kuri-Cervantes L, et al. Deep Immune Profiling of MIS-C demonstrates marked but transient immune activation compared to adult and pediatric COVID-19. medRxiv. 2020.

4) Gruber CN, Patel RS, Trachtman R, Lepow L, Amanat F, Krammer F, et al. Mapping Systemic Inflammation and Antibody Responses in Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Cell. 2020;183(4):982-95 e14.

Belluck, P. (2021, April 6). Many Children With Serious Inflammatory Syndrome Had No Covid Symptoms. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/health/covid-children-mis-c.html

„Up to 100 UK Children a Week Hospitalised with Rare Post-Covid Disease“. URL: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/05/up-to-100-uk-children-a-week-hospitalised-with-rare-post-covid-disease

Take away: "Immune training" or bystander effects from other vaccinations may help to fight off Covid-19 or other infections, in spite of not being specific to that pathogen. Some of these effects are sex-specific.

Claim: "Somehow immunology has been blind to sex"

The evidence: This is not entirely true- there is actually a LOT of research into sex differences in the immune response, and it is well-known that women can generally mount stronger Th1-type immune responses against viral infections than men. This is thought to be partially linked to estrogen cycling, and partly due to the fact that women have 2 active copies of genes associated with immunity because those are encoded on the X chromosomes. Men only have 1 copy, and thus they don't generally mount as strong an inflammatory response. However, women are also more prone to autoimmune diseases as a consequence of having stronger inflammatory responses than men, which is seen in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

Sources: (https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2016.90).

Gorey, C. (2020, June 29). RCSI team to start trial for promising Covid-19 therapy for severe infections. Silicon Republic. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/rcsi-trial-covid-19-therapy-alpha-1-antitrypsin

Consiglio, C. R., Cotugno, N., Sardh, F., Pou, C., Amodio, D., Zicari, S., Ruggiero, A., Pascucci, G. R., Rodriguez, L., Santilli, V., Tan, Z., Eriksson, D., Wang, J., Lakshmikanth, T., Marchesi, A., Lakshmikanth, T., Campana, A., Villani, A., Rossi, P., … Brodin, P. (2020). The Immunology of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children with COVID-19. MedRxiv, 2020.07.08.20148353. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.20148353

Godfred-Cato, S. (2020). COVID-19–Associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children—United States, March–July 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932e2

Luban, J., Sattler, R., Mühlberger, E., Graci, J. D., Cao, L., Weetall, M., Trotta, C., Colacino, J. M., Bavari, S., Strambio-De-Castillia, C., Suder, E. L., Wang, Y., Soloveva, V., Cintron-Lue, K., Naryshkin, N. A., Pykett, M., Welch, E. M., O’Keefe, K., Kong, R., … Peltz, S. (2020). The DHODH Inhibitor PTC299 Arrests SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Suppresses Induction of Inflammatory Cytokines. BioRxiv, 2020.08.05.238394. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.05.238394

Jiang. L.Tang. K. Levin. M. Irfan. O. Morris. S. (2020) COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and adolescents. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Retrieved from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30651-4/fulltext

Unterman, A., Sumida, T. S., Nouri, N., Yan, X., Zhao, A. Y., Gasque, V., Schupp, J. C., Asashima, H., Liu, Y., Cosme, C., Deng, W., Chen, M., Raredon, M. S. B., Hoehn, K., Wang, G., Wang, Z., Deiuliis, G., Ravindra, N. G., Li, N., … Cruz, C. S. D. (2020). Single-Cell Omics Reveals Dyssynchrony of the Innate and Adaptive Immune System in Progressive COVID-19. MedRxiv, 2020.07.16.20153437. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.16.20153437

Vaughan, A. (n.d.). Which covid-19 treatments work and how close are we to getting more? New Scientist. Retrieved 31 July 2020, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250176-which-covid-19-treatments-work-and-how-close-are-we-to-getting-more/

Long, Q.-X., Tang, X.-J., Shi, Q.-L., Li, Q., Deng, H.-J., Yuan, J., Hu, J.-L., Xu, W., Zhang, Y., Lv, F.-J., Su, K., Zhang, F., Gong, J., Wu, B., Liu, X.-M., Li, J.-J., Qiu, J.-F., Chen, J., & Huang, A.-L. (2020). Clinical and immunological assessment of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. Nature Medicine, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0965-6

Yi, Eunhee S., Matthew J. Cecchini, and Melanie C. Bois. ‘Pathologists in Pursuit of the COVID-19 Culprit’. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 0, no. 0 (8 June 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30449-7.

That's a lot of people too.

That's a lot of people.