So the physician relative just told me that her own case of Covid is more helpful

[Maraya1969]

toward warding off any new variants etc and when I said something to the effect that vaccines produce antibodies she said, "No, they make spike proteins"

So I look it up and to me it seems as if a spike protein is an antibody or can be a type of antibody.

Then she goes on to tell me that I should have a supply of hydroxychloroquine, (which I refuse to get). She had some for some other reason and used it on her and her husband when they got Covid.

Anyone know in layman's terms if a spike protein is an antibody or can be an antibody? I'm beginning to think she is lying now too. I'm actually worried for her with this new variant that Faucci is talking about but I shouldn't have brought it up. Nothing good ever comes from talking to her about these things. I cannot believe that she is comfortable with her stance now. There is just too much going against her. She has never been able to show me any proof of anything she says. We have mental illness in our family and I wonder how much of it she has inherited.

[Orrex]

1. With all due respect, tell her she's a fucking whackjob

And she should hang her diploma in an outhouse.

You're certainly not the only person at whom she's spewed this bullshit, and some might be silly enough to mistake her medical degree for authoritative expertise.

[Stuart G]

6. Yes, I agree with that assessment: "Fucking WACKJOB"

[Wingus Dingus]

8. Yep. The HCQ advice is key looney-tunes tipoff.

[SPDem]

2. A spike protein

Is a protein that resembles a spike from the virus. The vaccine gets your body to manufacture the spike protein and then your immune system creates antibodies to the spike which then work against real virus particles when you are exposed.

[WhiteTara]

3. thank you for that info

Welcome to DU btw

[SPDem]

10. Thanks!

[dawg day]

7. It's actually safer than a "live vaccine" like the early polio vaccines--

which very occasionally would cause the disease. (Many of us would have gotten that-- it would be a squirt of liquid into the mouth.

(The polio vaccine now is "inactivated" and can't cause the disease-- it's a shot, or I guess 4 shots.)

The protein fools the virus without giving any of the actual virus, as I understand.

[Ms. Toad]

12. It trains the immune system to attack anything with that spike protein.

Not so much fooling the virus as it is fooling your immune system.

[Maraya1969]

16. Yes thank you. So it is kind of like the intermediary in creating the antibodies.

[Marrah_Goodman]

4. I found this information

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html

[RockRaven]

5. The "spike protein" is a part of the coronavirus, specifically a protein on its surface.

It is a foreign, nonhuman protein. In immunological terms, it is an "antigen" -- a thing which your immune system will react to. The mRNA vaccines work by causing some of your own cells to (temporarily) make some of these spike proteins, which cause your immune system to react and develop antibodies to these foreign proteins (as well as certain kinds of white blood cells), so it is prepared if your body ever encounters the real virus.

As for real infections generating better protection, that is a bit messy from an evidence standpoint but basically it is untrue.

And the hydroxychloroquine stuff is so clearly bullshit/quackery that endorsement of it is a sign of really deranged thinking -- far beyond mere willful ignorance or motivated reasoning.

[dawg day]

9. I don't know if she's "lying", but she's wrong--

And wrong in a way a doctor shouldn't be wrong.

I wonder if the state medical licensing boards are going to start investigating these kinds of doctor.

[Ms. Toad]

13. Yup. n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

14. In what way do you feel she is wrong?

[dawg day]

15. Well, pumping hydroxy is a signal, LOL

They're probably trying to help sell some of that $60 million of the drug supposedly stockpiled by genius Peter Navarro.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Yeah, there is that lol. I totally glossed over her hydroxy comment!

She was technically correct about some of the other things though, but even in those she sets a poor example.

[Maraya1969]

18. I wonder about that. She is in private practice now and I don't think she is associated

with a hospital at this point. But I know she does assessments for disability and for medical mamajuana now so she is associated with some bigger group and they may require vaccines at some point.

She knows what I think of her craziness. But truthfully I have only 1 other cousin in the US and I'm not that close to them and my brother and I are estranged. It's sad but since both our moms died this past year we are kind of all we've got left in a way. Neither of us had kids; she still has a husband. So I want to keep my relationship with her. I never thought that at 63 most of my family would be dead save for the evangelical brother and his family that I have nothing to do with anymore.

[Ms. Toad]

11. A spike protein is NOT an antibody.

It is a piece of a protein the mRNA instructs your cells to make. The spike protein is where the coronavirus gets its name - the spikey protrusions on the outside of the cell that create a halo around the core virus.

So when your cells display the protein that characterizes the coronavirus, your own body's immune system recognizes it as foreign and your own body creats antibodies so it can beat it to death the next time it sees it.

As to which is better - we don't know yet. Too busy trying to quell the pandemic to tease out the nuances of which creates better protection.

My guess is that the vaccine will, since the spike protein is common to all of the strains (so far), so the antibodies ought to recognize anything with that antibody. I'm not sure the same is true when what triggers the antibody response is the entire virus from a particular variant. But that's must me thinking out loud - I haven't done the research to back that up yet.

Hydroxycholoquine - nope. Sounds like one of the doctors we fired in the Antrhax era - who was handing out Cipro prescriptions to anyone who wanted them - just to have on hand in case they ran across Anthrax. Not anyone I want treating my family.

[Crunchy Frog]

17. The spike protein is an antigen. It's presence stimulates your immune system

to produce antibodies to neutralize them. This is how vaccines work.

So she's technically correct, but it sounds like she's being disingenuous and taking advantage of your relative lack of knowledge, in order to push an incorrect narrative on you.

I would not turn to her for any kind of medical advice or scientific explanations.

She sounds toxic.

[Maraya1969]

19. You are right and that is why I am pissed. I knew enough to know that she was

bullshitting me. That's why I asked about the spike protein. For her to just leave it at that and not to add that the body's natural response is to make an antibody to the spike protein is disingenuous.

[zuul]

21. This may be why your relative is talking about spike proteins:

Apparently some COVID vaccine disinformation is being circulated on Facebook.

Link to tweet