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Thank you Alex. I am curious if you have an opinion about Memory T-cell tests such as the "T-Detect" as a more accurate/reliable surrogate to indicate the possibility of actual immunity? https://www.t-detect.com/ Thank you.

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Very important information. Thank you.

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Very much appreciate your way of looking at and analyzing data, Alex. Please refer me to any info that contradicts the following opinion as I'm eager to learn: In this specific case, from everything I can find, the FDA's primary reason for authorizing the vaccines was because of a very large drop in infections in people randomized to vaccines vs. those randomized to placebo. This was true with adults and later in a clinical trial with children down to age 12. To authorize (let alone approve) a vaccine based primarily on the presence of antibodies the FDA would first need to see extremely strong evidence that antibodies and protection from infection were very highly and consistently associated. The FDA clearly doesn't have that kind of evidence yet - hence their advisory. It would be great, as commenter Collins wonders, if there WAS a valid marker (like T cells, etc) because it would accelerate vaccine development and approval. Hope scientists are working on that but we definitely need to know more about how well the vaccines work, with what kinds of clinical scenarios, etc. That takes big secure data and deep cooperation among patients, clinicians, policy people, scientists, etc. Thank you for keeping us thinking!

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