Hacker News Reader

Comment by amilios | Hacker News Reader

This is an absolute myth. There is no evidence of "immunity debt", and serious public officials parrotting this nonsense are doing real damage. It's a tempting explanation because it's simple and seems to make intuitive sense, but it's just wrong. The explanation that has much more evidence is that everyone and their dog caught COVID, and COVID has been directly linked to lasting immune system damage, making everyone more susceptible to catching these other viruses.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9272293/immunity-debt-covid-19-mi...

View on HN

It seems anything that could hurt pfizer or Moderna stock is "misinformation".

"In fact, Furness likens the immune system to a collection of photographs. When people take photos and put them away in an album, the photos don’t fade over time just because they aren’t being looked at regularly."

By that logic I must not need my yearly flu shot because my flu "photo" hasn't faded. Clearly if I wasn't exposed to rsv (and it's most recent variants) my immune system can fight it just as strongly because I have that photo from two years ago.

Also, tetanus vaccines every 10 years, that must be bs.

The 2021 flu shot was a different vaccine than the 2022 flu shot. Or to stretch the analogy, it's a different photo of a similar subject

Yes but the tetanus toxoid is the same toxoid it's always been. It is disingenuous to suggest that the immune system doesn't atrophy some with time. It's much more nuanced really, but humoral immunity in particular wanes with time.

Furness seems to have only a cursory understand of immunity (despite all his credentials). Boosters and yearly flu shots just some simple examples of how the immunological world does not work the way he describes. Too many public health officials are unwilling to admit they made mistakes and gave bad recommendations early in the pandemic. He should correct his errors or step down.

There is no evidence of "immunity debt", and waning immunity are one and the same. So if think one is myth, you believe both are myths.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com