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          blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters

          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

          Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

          “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

          Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

          Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

          A row of tall houses on the left, with parked cars in front on the side of the street

          Saving Scotland’s tenements

          Ben Nevis. Forground has green shrubbery, then background a mountain with two tops. Blue sky with a few streaky clouds

          Exploring the Highest Mountain in the British Isles: A Guide to Ben Nevis

          Image via Steller Systems, a potential candidate.

          Cancelling future frigates could be final nail in the coffin for the UK

          A hospital corridor with trolleys on the sides.

          Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

          A scene of people demonstrating, holding Scotland flags. One man wears a tartan cap and holds a blue flag with both the Scottish cross and the EU stars on it.

          Is Alister Jack sane?

          Cartoon by Stan

          Film reviews award season

          Trending Tags

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          blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters

          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

          A scene of people demonstrating, holding Scotland flags. One man wears a tartan cap and holds a blue flag with both the Scottish cross and the EU stars on it.

          Is Alister Jack sane?

          Image Malcom Laverty

          The Brown plan

          The climate change impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine

          Britain wastes £1bn on drones to monitor English Channel

          The Autumn Statement – time to take a closer look

          Photo Mtaylor848, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

          Christmas cheer for Tesco if grim reading for the political classes

          Scottish independence isn’t going away

          Russia as a low-tech nation

          Trending Tags

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          • Equality
          • Johnson
          • Scottish National Party
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          • Shipbuilding
          • Trade
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          A row of tall houses on the left, with parked cars in front on the side of the street

          Saving Scotland’s tenements

          A large red researcgh vessel in the sea with ice sheets all around it on the water.

          Rosyth shipyard attracts UK Government contract to maintain fleet of scientific research vessels

          large posts saying 'Glasgow Airport Business Park' on the left and right of a road leading away from the main road in the front. . On that road leading away building with walls almost entirely existing of windows.

          Why doing business in Scotland may be better for your corporate wellbeing

          A mountain of spools forming a tree on the left, a sandy area to the right and a row of houses at the back. mountains in the distance on the right

          The Ullapool Giving Tree

          Electric off-roader heralds return of vehicle mass-production in Scotland after 40 years

          Photo Mtaylor848, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

          Christmas cheer for Tesco if grim reading for the political classes

          Ferguson Marine will weather the storm

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            Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

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            Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

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            GMB union reject Scottish Government pay offer to NHS staff

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            How careful should we be when choosing a scientific term?

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              Wood stove at the foot of the bed in the Danish Blue room at Pig Hill Inn, Cold Spring, New York. Printed with permission and confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

              When smoke gets in your eyes

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              How careful should we be when choosing a scientific term?

              The inappropriate use of a term not only has negative consequences to the scientific community, but also to society’s knowledge. A good example of a bad choice: “immunity debt”

              Dr Patricia S PatonbyDr Patricia S Paton
              14-12-2022 16:11
              in Covid, Health, Influenza, Respiratory
              Lymphocites gathering

              Lymphocites gathering

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              It is not news that it is normal at this time of the year for cases of viral respiratory infections, such as Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza, to increase and cause outbreaks. Neither is unusual that bacterial infections also rise as they tend to appear after or with a viral infection. However, what is new is that we might be more vulnerable this year due to a now so-called “immunity debt”.

              Personally, I think this is not a good term and I hadn’t seen the use of it before Covid19 pandemic. Is there any evidence for using it? Does “immunity debt” exist? I would favour the use of a better term. Maybe innate immunity decrease. Even so, exposure to one single vaccine, whichever it is, can train our innate immunity and enhance it. What about herd immunity decrease?

              The appearance of the “immunity debt” term

              “Immunity debt” started to spread from an opinion paper published in August 2021 where the authors aim was to check the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) imposed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the appearance of larger epidemics. Their idea was that these interventions reduced the spread of the other pathogens during lockdown periods, as people didn’t interact within the community as much, since they were spending more time at their homes.

              Consequently, the lack of immune stimulation and the reduced vaccine uptake induced an “immunity debt”. The authors even mentioned the possibility of a decreased herd immunity due to the observed delay in the vaccination programme that also didn’t include vaccines against rotavirus, varicella and some others. I should stress that this study was carried out in France.

              When I think of what the authors suggested about lockdowns imposed in 2020 being responsible for an “immunity debt”, my thoughts go back centuries. Are the authors applying Lamarckian’s theory to our immune system such as — if we don’t use it, it atrophies? Our immune system doesn’t require constant activation from pathogens for it to be functional.

              Something to bear in mind also. Children, in lockdowns or not, are in contact with bugs all the time!! Bugs from food, from their parents and from their gardens. I bet from the computer screens as well, during their online school sessions.

              blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters
              Democracy

              Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

              byChristine Huebnerand1 others
              31 January 2023

              What could be the reason for these high levels of RSV and Streptococcus A (Strep A) infections?

              One hypothesis is that infants that normally get infected during their first two to five years of life didn’t, and therefore, instead of having staggered infections in these last years, children are getting infected at the same time and for the first time ever in their lives, making the outcome more severe.

              Consequently, pressure on hospitals increases substantially. One could argue then that this is an immunity debt. But is it? Or is it just an immunity interruption? We don’t lose immunity, so it can’t be a debt. It can be a delay of immunity for those who have never encountered the pathogen before and that is why vaccination programmes exist.

              The danger of this concept of “immunity debt” is that it supports those against Covid19 vaccine with the argument that Covid19 is like a bad flu and that it is good to get infected with it to provide immunity in the longer term. This thought is wise, isn’t it? We, scientists, ask: why would someone want immunity from an infection? The ones preferring to get infected respond: to be protected from getting infected…oh…oh! Suddenly the realisation of their poor thinking comes to surface!

              Or likewise, we, scientists, ask: why are so many vaccines so successful that some of them even eradicated diseases such as Smallpox, Polio, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Measles, Mumps and Rubella in the past? It is because they conferred immunity. The ones that don’t believe in vaccines answer: then, why are some of these diseases re-appearing? We, scientists, respond: because some young children are not being vaccinated anymore!

              We need to keep all causative links on the table

              For the cases of Strep A bacterial infection, I believe it is an example of an opportunistic infection due to viral infections, such as RSV, influenza or even Covid19 itself as the age group of children affected hasn’t been vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2.

              There is no doubt that immunity surveillance is an important public health matter. There is need to understand well the fluctuation on the levels and on the times of the year of these infections. However, it is fundamental to keep all the possible causative links to these high levels of RSV and Strep A infections on the table. We don’t have surveillance in place for SARS-CoV-2 as we have for other infections. Do we?!

              Tags: causative linksCovid 19healthHepatitisimmune systemsimmunity debtinfectionsInfluenzeMeningitispolioRespiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)Sars-CoV-2ScotlandSmallpoxStrep a
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              Dr Patricia S Paton

              Dr Patricia S Paton

              Patricia S Paton was born in Brazil where she acquired her BSc in biochemistry & immunology, MSc in cellular and molecular biology and PhD in immunology. In 2000 she was awarded an international fellowship by the Wellcome Trust to develop her research, signalling transduction in a parasitic disease, at University of Glasgow. Afterwards, she was involved with projects on immune-stimulating complexes and drugs development. Nowadays, living in Glasgow, she is married, has a daughter and tutors privately.

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