COVID-19 and vaccine reactogenicity in MEBO/PATM community

Infections have been shown to alter body odor and so have immunizations. So far, only nonhuman animals were able to detect the subtle changes in chemical makeup after vaccinations and even their sensitive noses were not able to differentiate between different vaccines - such as the rabies virus or the West Nile virus vaccines [Kimball et al, 2014]. However, this was the case of very mild reactions to immunization. Even slightly stronger inflammatory responses, to relatively weak immune challenges, can, indeed, be detected by human noses [Gordon et al, 2018]. Urine and axillary odor are becoming slightly more aversive in healthy humans, as a function of immune activation. But this is not supposed to last too long.

Our preliminary results, based on responses to the survey for 24 members of MEBO community and 6 of their family members show a wide variety of reactions to Astrazeneca, J&J, Moderna, Pfizer and Sinovac/Coronavac vaccines. 

Interestingly, Pfizer vaccine that caused no or very mild reactions in several MEBO participants, was also the vaccine that possibly caused temporary worsening of odor symptoms in one person in the community. Another MEBO participant that reported possible worsening of odor from Moderna vaccine had one thing in common with the other individual - they both had pre-existing conditions related to their upper digestive tract. Some Astrazeneca recipients also reported odor issues but did not think it was worse than usual. 

One of the most interesting observations was that even though only 2 members of MEBO/PATM community reported COVID-19 infection (before or between vaccinations), both of them had long COVID with long-term neurological manifestations such as fatigue, ENT symptoms and loss of smell.

Adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines are influenced by a multitude of factors, many of which can be anticipated and alleviated. A certain level of inflammation is needed to trigger an effective adaptive immune response, but both environment and genetic makeup determine who is more likely to experience particular symptoms after infection and from the vaccine.

You can help by telling us about your experiences with COVID-19 and/or vaccinations. These surveys can be used for posting your brief stories - no need to answer all the questions. And you can always add to your story later. Please use your anonymous ID and let us know if you have any questions.

Survey

in English:  https://bit.ly/BTN-eng

en Español: https:/bit.ly/BTN-esp

We'll be posting more observations and comparisons with over 600 participants of our study from other communities. 

REFERENCES

Blumental S, Debré P. Challenges and issues of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Frontiers in Medicine. 2021;8.

Gordon AR, Kimball BA, Sorjonen K, Karshikoff B, Axelsson J, Lekander M, Lundström JN, Olsson MJ. Detection of inflammation via volatile cues in human urine. Chemical senses. 2018 Nov 1;43(9):711-9.

Kimball BA, Opiekun M, Yamazaki K, Beauchamp GK. Immunization alters body odor. Physiology & behavior. 2014 Apr 10;128:80-5.

Vaccine to cure body odor?

There could be a vaccine for everything. Scientists are working on personal vaccines, vaccines reducing body weight or narcotic dependence, vaccines for just about anything.  Can there be a vaccine improving body odor? Certainly, and it could target not only bacteria (in body crevices) worsening odor, but also molecules responsible for odor. This would be a very complex task, however, as there is still a lot we don't understand.  For example, if metabolism and microbiomes leading to body odor cause similar reactions to already existing vaccines. 

Several vaccines to prevent COVID-19 were authorized for emergency use and hundreds of millions doses have been administered. 2 millions of vaccinated individuals in the US completed a health survey in the 7 days following their vaccination via the v-safe app.

This table shows top adverse reactions reported to the first two vaccines authorized in the US. Hundreds of social media groups on Facebook, reddit and WhatsApp are also flooded by descriptions of adverse reactions and immunity related events. What is missing? The ability to systematically analyze all these reactions in different health and neighborhood communities.

We started such a study in one neighborhood community and would like to also conduct it in the MEBO/PATM communities. We are also opening it to MEBO friends and family - asking them to indicate their relationship with MEBO/PATM in the comment section of the survey.

We are also collecting COVID-19 experiences in different groups of people, analyzing infectious disease susceptibility risks. 

in English: https://bit.ly/BTN-eng

en Español: https:/bit.ly/BTN-esp

Thank you for your help!

REFERENCES

ClinicalTrials.gov [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). 2021 April 6 - . Identifier NCT04832932, The COVID-19 Back-to-Normal Study [cited 2021 April 7]; Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04832932

Chapin-Bardales J, Gee J, Myers T. Reactogenicity Following Receipt of mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccines. JAMA. 2021 Apr 5. doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.5374. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33818592. 

Zimmermann P, Curtis N. Factors that influence the immune response to vaccination. Clinical microbiology reviews. 2019 Mar 20;32(2). 

Mosquera MJ, Kim S, Zhou H, Jing TT, Luna M, Guss JD, Reddy P, Lai K, Leifer CA, Brito IL, Hernandez CJ. Immunomodulatory nanogels overcome restricted immunity in a murine model of gut microbiome–mediated metabolic syndrome. Science advances. 2019 Mar 1;5(3):eaav9788.

Bandaru P, Rajkumar H, Nappanveettil G. The impact of obesity on immune response to infection and vaccine: an insight into plausible mechanisms. Endocrinol Metab Synd. 2013;2(2):1000113-22. 

Kim YH, Kim JK, Kim DJ, Nam JH, Shim SM, Choi YK, Lee CH, Poo H. Diet-induced obesity dramatically reduces the efficacy of a 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine in a mouse model. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2012 Jan 15;205(2):244-51. 

 Monteiro MP. Obesity vaccines. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2014;10(4):887-95. doi: 10.4161/hv.27537. Epub 2013 Dec 23. PMID: 24365968; PMCID: PMC4896563. 

Ozgen MH, Blume S. The continuing search for an addiction vaccine. Vaccine. 2019 Aug 23;37(36):5485-90. 

Daniel W, Nivet M, Warner J, Podolsky DK. Early evidence of the effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at one medical center. New England Journal of Medicine. 2021 Mar 23.