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Are There Clear and Consistent Racial Differences in Immunity?

So, the short answer is “Probably not.” I did a little digging on this because I heard the recently confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) cite studies which he says did indicate there are differences in humoral immunity between Caucasians and African Americans.

Now remember, I’m a retired general hospital psychiatric consultant and my immunology background consists of the standard immunology lecture in medical school. The class I remember most vividly was the one in which the lecturer stopped her lecture abruptly, sighed deeply and looked defeated, probably because she saw the look of confusion on our faces.

Now that you know my credentials, let me just review what I found in a far from exhaustive review of the scientific literature on the topic of whether or not African Americans have, as RFK Jr. remarked, a “better” immune system than Caucasians.

On my own, I found what RFK Jr referred to variously (depending what social media web source you use) as the “Poland” or “pollen” studies as the scientific source of information supporting his view. I suspect it’s this, in which the last author in the citation is GA Poland:

Haralambieva IH, Salk HM, Lambert ND, Ovsyannikova IG, Kennedy RB, Warner ND, Pankratz VS, Poland GA. Associations between race, sex and immune response variations to rubella vaccination in two independent cohorts. Vaccine. 2014 Apr 7;32(17):1946-53. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.01.090. Epub 2014 Feb 13. PMID: 24530932; PMCID: PMC3980440.

It was later in the day that I finally also found the NPR news story, the author of which pointed out the same article.

I also found a couple of other articles which tend to contradict the findings of the Poland et al study. One of them was published in eClinicalMedicine in 2023:

Martin CA, Nazareth J, Jarkhi A, Pan D, Das M, Logan N, Scott S, Bryant L, Abeywickrama N, Adeoye O, Ahmed A, Asif A, Bandi S, George N, Gohar M, Gray LJ, Kaszuba R, Mangwani J, Martin M, Moorthy A, Renals V, Teece L, Vail D, Khunti K, Moss P, Tattersall A, Hallis B, Otter AD, Rowe C, Willett BJ, Haldar P, Cooper A, Pareek M. Ethnic differences in cellular and humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2023 Apr;58:101926. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101926. Epub 2023 Apr 4. PMID: 37034357; PMCID: PMC10071048.

The list of references include the Poland study (reference 27) cited above. The bottom line is the African American immune response to Covid is not “better” than that of white health care workers but the Asian immune response was stronger. I thought it was interesting that in the section “Evidence before this study,” the authors point out that in one previous study, African Americans had lower antibody responses to vaccination than Whites.

I looked at only one other study, published in Clinical Microbiology Review in 2019;

Zimmermann P, Curtis N2019.Factors That Influence the Immune Response to Vaccination. Clin Microbiol Rev 32:10.1128/cmr.00084-18.https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00084-18

OK, so I didn’t hunt through all 582 references, but I thought it was enough to note that the authors didn’t mention race as even being relevant anywhere in the body of the paper.

That said, I suspect the more important fact to focus on is racial disparity regarding African Americans even getting vaccines, especially the Covid vaccine. Vaccine hesitancy is common in this population and probably more important to address rather than whether or not there are significant racial differences in immunogenicity. The major challenge is providing accurate information about vaccines in general and Covid vaccines in particular.

The CDC Advisory Committee includes African American members who attend each meeting and emphasize the importance of including black people in vaccination campaigns. OK, so why was the meeting this month cancelled, postponed, or whatever?

Hey, I’m just an old psychiatrist, so don’t take my word for it about anything here. Ask an immunologist. If the immunologist gives you a blank look, you could try a Ouija Board.

Old School

We were reminiscing about our elementary school days following a discussion of news article about what some educators want to do with the school day schedule. Apparently, kids are pretty sleepy in class and teachers think it’s because they’re sleep deprived. Apparently, they’re not getting enough sleep at night and the proposal is that the school day schedule ought to be pushed ahead, the day starting at 9 AM instead of 8 AM.

Maybe the kids should be off their electronic devices a little earlier in the evening.

I guess there have been studies supporting this idea for years, but of course I hadn’t heard of it. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to change the system.

What we remembered were the consequences imposed by teachers and principals when we didn’t perform up to expectations in class, or misbehaved in class or on the playground.

Sena had a little trouble with remembering the vowels, a e i o u and sometimes y. She had so much trouble with it that she had to stay after school to write that out over and over on two big blackboards. It took quite a while. That was back in the days when blackboards were big and covered one entire wall of the classroom. There was always more chalk available if she ran out. Sometimes the penalty for her not paying attention was a few sharp raps on the top of her head with a No.2 pencil. Most often it was for talking out of turn or not paying attention.

I got caught a couple of times for throwing snowballs on the playground. I think it was at least a couple of times. The consequence for this infraction was to sit in the principal’s office drawing little circles resembling snowballs on a sheet of paper. They had to be small so that it took you a long time to fill up the paper. If you made them too big, the principal made you flip the sheet over and do it again. I think if you got writer’s cramp, you had to switch hands.

My brother and I had to walk to and from school. We had to get up early and sometimes the snow was up to our knees. It was about a half-mile walk to school. One winter day, I was walking home and found a dog frozen stiff as a statue next to the sidewalk.

I spent most of time after lunch looking at the clock, wishing the hands would move faster to 3 PM, when school let out. I would walk home and because I was a latchkey kid, I just let myself in the house.

I guess moving the time up so that kids can be more awake during the morning wouldn’t hurt anything. Maybe the curriculum will be simplified a little bit too. Things like geography could be easier. You could change the name of the Gulf of Mexico (or is it the Gulf of America now?) to something that makes more sense—like the Gulf of Water.

If you can’t learn that, maybe you need to have your head rapped with a No.2 pencil.

Send The Asteroid; We Deserve It

About that news article regarding an asteroid colliding with earth—I couldn’t read it…hits too close to home (rim shot!).

More seriously (but not much!), the background for this is that the asteroid 2024 YR4 has been identified by NASA and is tracking it now. News stories emphasize its large size of maybe up to a few hundred feet and the low chance of it hitting earth at all. NASA’s latest estimate today of the probability of it hitting us at 0.28%. It’s scheduled to buzz by or through us in 2032.

I’m still trying to learn the terminology about rocks in and from space:

Asteroid: a rock that orbits the sun

Comet: an icy ball of dirt that orbits the sun

Meteor: a descriptive term about the amount of a certain edible substance, as in— “What did the black hole say after it swallowed an asteroid? It was good but I wish it had been a little meteor.”

Meteorite: a space rock that enters the earth’s atmosphere, creates a streak of light in the sky and lands on the earth’s surface.

Trilobite: a funny looking creature that died out during the mass extinction caused by a meteorite landing on the earth’s surface.

Any questions? No? Then let’s move on.

This should remind everyone of the well-known X-Files episode, “Tunguska.” Like many of the episode names, it’s pretty inscrutable unless you have a little background. Tunguska is an area in Siberia that in 1908 took a big hit from a cosmic event, basically an explosion of many megatons which flattened a forest of millions of trees. The impact occurred far up in the sky and was probably caused by a meteorite which left no impact crater.

Anyway, Agent Mulder talks about the Tunguska event as part of speculation about where a rock (found early in the episode) came from that has this black oil in it which infects humans (making them homicidal maniacs) and is made by extraterrestrials. Earlier a scientist speculated that the rock might be a meteorite containing fossilized extraterrestrial bacteria—just before the black oil got him.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famous astrophysicist remarked in a news report about this rock that now might not be a great time to cut funding to science.

So that’s why we should be asking ourselves, “Why are they called hemorrhoids? Because Asteroids was already taken.”

Get Ready to Vaccinate Your Chickens!

I’ve heard about the recent contract a drug company (Zoetis) obtained to make chicken vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu virus which is hopping from birds to cows and even to humans. So far, I haven’t heard that the bird flu is transmitted between humans.

As far as eating eggs, I’ve read that the chance of getting bird flu is pretty slim—but experts tell you to cook your eggs to a temperature above 165 degrees. No soft egg yolks for me.

Anyway, Zoetis is making a vaccine for chickens. I got to wondering how you would vaccinate chickens. Obviously, you have to catch them first, wrestle them down to the barnyard floor and stick a needle into them somewhere under all the feathers.

There’s a Wikihow with instructions (including a video) for giving chickens vaccines. One of them says to inject the bird in the spot for which you have the easiest access and which is the “most comfortable for the chicken.”

How do you tell which is the most comfortable spot for the chicken to be impaled by a needle? Maybe it’s marked by a Walgreens sticker. You have to sterilize the spot, maybe with a splash of that moonshine you’re making on your property. Make sure you don’t drink any of it during the vaccination process. You want to make sure of your aim.

When and how do you wrap a rubber band around the beak? You know darn well the chicken is going to peck you. You can tell we don’t have chickens in the backyard.

And then there are all the stories on the internet about how chickens can run around for a short while even after their heads are cut off. If they’re that energetic without their heads attached, how much more frantic are they going to be if they see you chasing after them with a needle? And remember, you’re going to probably poke them in the neck. Chickens know that. They also know you’re wearing only thin rubber gloves.

And aren’t chicken farms or ranches or coops, whatever, just chock full of thousands of chickens? Vaccinating all of them is a dawn to dusk proposition so you better have your Wheaties in the morning.

Are the roosters also up for the vaccine? One way to get them ready is to let them crow until they pass out. Then you can poke them. You’re welcome.

Rife vs Ripe: Which is Right?

I noticed a couple of things about one of the President’s many new Executive Orders, which was “ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN COMMISSION,” or MAHA for short. It was posted on February 13, 2025. One thing it reminded me of is the tax filing season, which is upon us (everything reminds me of the tax filing season around this time of year). The other thing was a short article about the IRS, which is cutting staff sharply in response, probably as a response to the federal government workforce layoffs generally. One sentence in the article read:

“The IRS layoffs, first reported by the New York Times, come as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the federal government, which they argue is too bloated and inefficient, and ripe with waste and fraud.”

I put the word “ripe” in bold-face type because I sensed that the writer probably meant “rife” instead. I looked up the definitions of both just to make sure: Rife means abundant and ripe means mature (possibly overly mature as in smelly and ready for the garbage can).

I wonder if “rife” or “ripe” could apply to MAHA. I’m all for making us healthy. I agree with promoting health. I’m not sure what is meant by “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.” It sounds like a shot across the bow for psychiatrists and primary care physicians.

Some of the content may be either “rife” (or is it “ripe”?) with potentially misleading innuendo, implying that health care professionals are not doing all we can already to promote health. I agree with promoting research into the “root causes” for mental illness. However, some people need psychiatric medications for “just managing disease.” Reducing the suffering of those who are tortured by depression and delusions and hallucinations makes sense because that’s the humane thing to do.

This reminds me of a very interesting article about what some scientists think about how life began on this planet and how it might start elsewhere in the universe. Some think life evolves mainly by chance, by a cosmic accident. Others think it’s inevitable and occurs when planetary conditions are right. So that might mean there’s a good chance there are extraterrestrials are out there. If they are, what would they think of us?

And this reminds me of a quote from the movie, Men in Black. Agent K is showing Edwards a universal translator, one of the many wonders in the extraterrestrial technology room, which gives us a perspective on how humans rank in the universe:

Agent K: We’re not even supposed to have it. I’ll tell you why. Human thought is so primitive it’s looked upon as an infectious disease in some of the better galaxies.

So is the universe “rife” with life—or is it “ripe”?

Sena Double Dog Dared Me to Try the Electric Snow Shovel!

Well, the snow kept coming down. I had to go back out to shovel. I was going to use my plow shovel, but Sena said I was too chicken to try the electric snow shovel.

I couldn’t back down.

So, I had to go out there, after the wind had changed mind you, and use the battery powered shovel. I got snow all over me because no matter what I did to adjust the snow deflectors, the snow just blew back in my face.

I could have been a contender.

Sena Gives the Electric Snow Blower the Real Test!

We got a real snowfall starting last night and into this morning. Sena took the Voltask battery-powered 48V 16-inch snow shovel out and put it through its paces.

We got about 6 inches of snow and it chewed right through it. It threw the snow into the next county! It took her about 30 minutes to make my job a lot easier with the shovel.

Super Bowl Commercial “Mean Joe Frank” 2025 Looked Familiar!

We watched the Super Bowl last night and one of the many commercials (always a big thing) looked vaguely familiar only after Sena pointed it out. It was the Fareway Frank commercial about Fareway stores. It was a reprise of the famous 1979 Coca-Cola commercial with Mean Joe Green, defensive tackle for the Pittsburg Steelers and a kid. When you compare them, the similarities are obvious. There are two Fareway commercials that are the same, but have different titles, one of them being “Mean Joe Frank.”

The Hey Kid, Catch commercial with Mean Joe Green featured a 9-year-old kid named Tommy Okon. I couldn’t find a name for the kid in the “Mean Joe Frank” version.

But you can find film information on Turner Classic Movies titled “The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid” which is based on the commercial. The kid is Henry Martin who later starred in the movie, “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” (1982).

This led to reminiscence of Fareway Store in Mason City, Iowa. I used to walk to Fareway to get groceries and walked back carrying at least two big paper sacks. My arms were always pretty sore when I got home. I used a wagon later on, but had to be careful crossing the railroad tracks on the way back to ensure the eggs didn’t break.

There are Fareway stores all across Iowa and several neighboring states now, but the first one opened in Boone, Iowa in 1938. It popularized the idea of shoppers picking out their own items from the shelves rather than letting a store employee pick them out from the shopper’s list. The store name was inspired by what was sold (“fare”) and treating customers and employees fairly.

The Fareway Frank character was called Forrest Frank in 2024 although it looks like the company has settled on Fareway Frank.

The other Iowa connection worth mentioning is that rookie defensive player for the Philadelphia Eagles (Super Bowl winners), Cooper DeJean, who played for the University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, made a pick-6 interception touchdown in the game.

While the Fareway Frank version of the Super Bowl commercials line-up didn’t make the short list (or any list for that matter) of favorites, it sure did bring back memories for us.

The Big Mo Pod Show: “Variety is the Spice of Life”

We heard the Big Mo Blues Show last night and heard a couple of tunes that were fun. One of them was mentioned on the Big Mo Pod Show today, “Feelin’ Alright” by Stuff. The other was a riot but was not on the podcast, and it was “I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie” by Magic Sam.

The one that brought back memories was “Feelin’ Alright” by Stuff. It sounded so familiar and we finally figured out it was a cover of song of the same title and sung by Joe Cocker (the one I remember). However, I guess it was originally written by Dave Mason of the group Traffic in 1968. And there’s even an album “Joe Cocker With Stuff Feelin’ Alright.”

The one Big Mo played last night was from the album Stuff Live at Montreux 1976. It was instrumental and hard to recognize at first. The lyrics are sad, though and it’s about unrequited love, I guess. I associated it years ago with drug and alcohol addiction after seeing the 2012 movie “Flight” on TV. Every scene in which the main character Whip Whitaker (played by Denzel Washington) got high, that song was a part of the scene.

Anyway, moving right along, the song that was not on the podcast and which was a whole lot of fun to listen to was “I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie) by Magic Sam. We’ve never heard of him but the way he sang the number made us laugh out loud.

The title of the podcast was right on target: “Variety is the Spice of Life.”