Science

The !hackernews cross-post of this link got something like 17 downvotes. And this one got three. As I read the science.org article, I'm wondering if most of those downvotes don't come from assumers equating this to anti-vaxx crap.

To be clear: the article is talking about the underlying mechanism of a rare side effect of one type of vaccine (AstraZeneca), already restricted in or dropped from multiple European countries*. It got replaced by safer vaccines, even if the 1/200k chance of triggering the side effect was not a big deal to begin with (specially given how many people COVID-19 was killing back then).

*and from Brazil since 2023. Source in Portuguese.

This is a good article reporting on actual research yielding new medical discoveries. There's no need to downvote.

I understand why people are downvoting, but identifying and explaining these misfires in somatic hypermutation is actually really novel and interesting work.

Somatic hypermutation and its role in common autoimmune diseases is something I desperately wish would make its way into popular knowledge. I think the name makes people think the concept is way more difficult than it really is.

The condition turned out to be rare—occurring in roughly one in 200,000 people who received the vaccines—but Eichinger’s worries were borne out.

0.0005% produce antibodies showing they expirance the effect...

And and even smaller percentage of those people had complications.