3 ms·
I thought immunity was "lost" because the common cold mutates so quickly, and the immune system response is too specific?
by randallsquared 7y ago
I thought immunity was "lost" because the common cold mutates so quickly, and the immune system response is too specific?
- m12k 7y agoMy impression was that unlike influenza, the common cold actually mutates very little, but that the immunity loss comes from the body 'forgetting' the antibodies for it after a while - I'm no doctor though.
- scotty79 7y agoFlu has specific mechanisms that allow for very fast mutation and that's why it's coming back. Coronaviruses don't have those mechanisms. What's more they have some mechanisms that prevent mutations. And yet they come back as well. It's probably because immunity to them don't last long. Here's cool explanation of how flu mutates and how it compares with coronaviruses: https://www.city-journal.org/coronavirus-vaccine https://www.city-journal.org/coronavirus-vaccine
- rimliu 7y agoColds are caused by coronaviruses and rhinoviruses, and there is a bunch of them. So the reason you get them often is not the lack of immunity, but because you can get infected but yet another virus you have no immunity for.
- scotty79 7y agoI'm talking specifically about colds caused by coronaviruses. They tend to peak about every two years and there are only few strains of them. Even if each peak is always caused by different strain we can pretty much rule out lifetime immunity. BTW, here's a cool movie that sums up what we know so far about possibility of developing long term immunity to the sars-cov-2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KBLtUBr1Os https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KBLtUBr1Os