COVID and Rapamycin - revisited

I am curious how people are doing with Rapamycin and COVID in terms of getting it. I did some searches and reading on the forums. It looks like a few have gotten COVID while taking Rapamycin. Some look to have avoided it even though family members got it. And, Dr Green hasn’t seen a hospitalization or death with all of his patients. I am curious because my family has passed COVID around for the last week+ and I have consistently tested negative. I know there are lots of factors at play but I am the only one on Rapamycin. Have you gotten it? Have you avoided it? If you got it what is your overall health? Did it go away quicker for you versus family Members who also got it? Just some basic data would be interesting.

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I’m the only one in my family that has not gotten it (to the best of my knowledge).

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My whole family got it to varying degrees. I never registered on any tests and only had a slight cough. However, I hadn’t taken Rapa yet but I had gotten my booster dose two weeks before. I’m going to credit the vaccine for this one.

I’m not sure I’d be very applicable.

I took my first COVID shot in June 2020 through a clinical trial after consulting with multiple MD/PhDs in infectious disease and my dad who currently manages COVID vaccine clinical trials. Originally, I was going to make my own peptide nasal shots in Mar 2020 but based on my infectious disease knowledge (I’ve had an NIAID grant for research before at a BSL-4 lab - so I can say definitively I’m fluent in immunology and infectious disease lingo) and consulting with infectious disease physicians, especially on antigenic imprinting - I decided to wait on the first batch of unpublished vaccine data before signing up. I also have a stockpile of well-fitted 3M medical N95s so it was basically gold at the time. (My bud Dr. Lee at HKU told me how bad it was very early on so I bought a bunch with a warehouse before they stopped selling to individuals and limited buyers to hospitals)

Haven’t got it yet or it may have been asymptomatic. I only recently started rapa this year though and got the Omicron booster in a trial. (Pretty sure it’s not placebo, fever for 16 hrs and characteristic pain at injection site)

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Rapalogs are probably a mixed bag when it comes to COVID-19. See, for example:

“Rapalogs downmodulate intrinsic immunity and promote cell entry of SARS-CoV-2”

We need more research.

It certainly needs more research to make any conclusive statements about what happens in humans and specific human subpopulations by running tons of really really expensive human clinical trials. But as far as I am aware on the immunology and infectious disease side - there is a long list of data for rapamycin + vaccine + infection over different animals with different viruses paradoxically inducing a more effective memory T cell response - not just antibodies from B cells that many seem to myopically assume is the single large standard of measuring COVID immunity.

I only have my own data for antibody levels for COVID - the clinical trial checks them often. They’ve lasted longer than expected - but keep in mind I haven’t reached older age currently and I can’t say for sure that anyone else will have the same individual response. I just know for myself - all the experiments pertaining to my own vaccine responses shows more than enough to suggest it worked for me. I don’t have super solid human data for sufficient sample size, but I suppose Dr. Green would. Dr. Green’s patients are probably a biased group and it’s essentially “open label” but it’s worth looking into.

Many running parts to immunology. Don’t just rely on one part to make a conclusion either way.

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I have not had Covid, although family members have and I was in a group where every other person later got it.

Bingo. Immunology is immensely complicated.

On the whole, I would expect rapamycin to have more positive than negative antiviral effects, across the board. But there are reasons to believe it might not be so great against SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, specifically (MERS-CoV is a different matter, interestingly – as of course are lots of non-CoVs), though it looks like it depends on cell type.

Really complicated.

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Yep - there is never any close to 100% certainty when it comes to experimental treatments. The anecdotes here are probably not applicable either. At the very least they aren’t tested thoroughly and are completely nonuniform.

And just to be clear - just because I sign up for a lot of different experimental vaccines does not mean all experimental vaccines are definitively 100% safe.

If the vaccine is already FDA approved, we can be near certain that the tradeoff of benefit vs risk is near certain given no contraindications. I can’t recall a single vaccine that had significant post-marketing issues that didn’t involve some ultra-rare side effects when it comes to serious ones or one-off manufacturing issues.

And I check every single experimental vaccine with multiple experts which I believe is the best I can find - one at a time. I found the misinformation surrounding vaccines to be so huge that I am very careful to just focus on what I know and don’t know - as well as a careful selection of experts that are aware of their limitations.

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For sure it is complicated. I am not suggesting a study or that the data of folks replying to a forum thread is conclusive in any way. This is akin to asking a few folks at a cocktail party what they are seeing in the ‘markets’, or watching on TV, etc. It isn’t going to change behavior, but as I said it could be interesting. We already have a few folks
who haven’t gotten COVID whilst taking Rapa reply. Again, hmmmmm

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If they got COVID and passed away (especially since rapa is contraindicated with the covid antivirals), they wouldn’t be replying.

It’s easy to jump to magical thinking but hard to think through the strongest arguments of both sides.

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Radically open-minded people know that coming up with the right questions and asking other smart people what they think is as important as having all the answers.

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Family had it… some twice… at work… everyone has had it… but not me. I go all over the USA… and some international travel in the last months.

Keep getting antibody test evey 4 months… but seem immune to it.

Also, type O positive blood. A great phenotype for not getting it.

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Wife has it bad last night and this morning. Tested positive, 102 fever, body aches and keeps throwing up. Nothing yet for me but it could be coming, if I get sick I’ll let you know.

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Yes. O positive here as well. Could be why we haven’t gotten it?

n=2 :wink:

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Back in May, my wife got COVID, but I didn’t. She didn’t isolate from me, and I had plenty of exposure. We both got our boosters in mid-December. Unfortunately, my luck ran out in July when I contracted what was probably omicron BA.5. I continued with my 6mg weekly rapamycin. The first two days were mild, and the third was awful. I began my recovery on day four, and tested positive on the rapid antigen tests until day 10. Overall, a mild case, but I’m not sure rapamycin made a difference either way. Maybe it enhanced the booster slightly, helping me ward off the earlier variant of omicron?

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I believe Rapa might help reduce the severity of Covid symptoms by dampening the NLRP3 inflammasome. (Or is that NRLP3?…I get mixed up.)
But not sure if it reduces the odds of getting infected in the first place.

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Just back from 3 days of covid. For me it was body aches and 101 fever for about 3 days. I’ve not been vaccinated and this is my first exposure. I was really drained and doing good just to drink and pee. Nasty disease, really glad I didn’t get one of the earlier versions.
When my wife got it I started taking ivermectin and took a dose every day. Obviously this did not save me, though it could have been worse. Maybe would have been worse, though I don’t want to be the guy that says that about his favorite plan.

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Sounds like you had a rough experience. Sorry to hear that. Are you experiencing any long covid side effects?

I was heavily exposed to COVID (as all my family had it) but fortunately, I had gotten the vaccine booster two weeks before and had no symptoms. The vaccines work.

No, both the wife and I are back to full time and feeling good now, thanks.

4 of my 5 kids got the vaccine and a few of the older grand kids did too. I recommended against it. Really I don’t think they know what they’re doing. I don’t know what they’re doing either, but it seems like a culling.

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