3 ms·
The immune system already does that and its the responsibility of CD4+ helper T-cells. The 2009 pandemic was significantly blunted because people born before 1
by lamontcg 5y ago
The immune system already does that and its the responsibility of CD4+ helper T-cells.
The 2009 pandemic was significantly blunted because people born before 1957 had partial immunity from cross-reactive T-cells to H1N1 which was endemic in humans from 1918-1957. So after mutating in probably billions of pigs for 50 years the H1N1 virus that hopped back to humans was still sufficiently recognized by the immune system of older people to take any edge off of that pandemic.
I'm also fairly skeptical of the data coming out of Israel about waning immunity. Everyone is taking that data at face value while entirely ignoring the disclaimer: "(Potential confounders include the fact that the very oldest Israelis, with the weakest immune systems, were vaccinated first.)".
We really need a lot better data on much better matched cohorts to determine actual immune waning in the presence of the same viral variant.
- graderjs 5y agoOh yeah definitely of course the immune system that already does that, the idea is just enhance its ability so that everyone has sort of Best in class defence against these viruses. it can be kind of slow on an individual level, but on a population level you will have some people who have evolved better defenses, or more resilient immune systems. If we can share that around that's the idea. It's very interesting though about that immunity thing you say. People born then.
- grepfru_it 5y agoI think that was the idea that spurred monoclonal antibodies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibody https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibody
- graderjs 5y agoInteresting, thanks. :)