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Semyaz t1_j8apide wrote

The most outward symptoms of being sick are induced by your own immune system. Fevers, chills, congestion, body aches, etc, are triggered when your immune system reacts to an infection. People who “don’t get sick often” usually just have a weaker response to infection. People who do get sick often (myself included) have immune systems that tend to overreact. A “good”, or preferable, immune system is one that doesn’t overreact to minor illness. That is, if your body is infected with a common cold virus, a healthy immune system can eliminate the virus without causing congestion and fevers.

A good case study for this is the original H1N1 flu that killed young adults more than people who are generally more susceptible to illness. Their healthy immune systems reacted too strongly (something called a “cytokine storm”), that the response was far more lethal than the virus itself.

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hodlboo OP t1_j8b1czz wrote

Sure, that makes sense. That’s what I’m interested in—not outward symptoms of being sick but the immune system’s effectiveness against viruses and bacteria.

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Supraspinator t1_j8b8ku7 wrote

Everyone has a unique „library“ of cells that fight viruses and bacteria. Which „books“ you have in your library is dependent on your parentage and the epidemiological history of your ancestors. A person can have a great variety of books fighting a specific disease, but only a few for another. So the effectiveness of someone’s immune system is not some absolute thing, but a mosaic of strengths and weaknesses.

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hodlboo OP t1_j8bgnz4 wrote

This is helpful, and makes it sound like genetics have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of an immune system in context…

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ditchdiggergirl t1_j8bk5bx wrote

As a geneticist with a little (very little) background in immunology I’m going to say, idk, maybe? Maybe not. Genes always matter, so sure. But there’s a pretty big stochastic factor with the immune system, a whole lot of environmental factors, and a ton we don’t understand. Starting with the definition of “strong immune system” - and if you can’t define that you can’t answer (or meaningfully ask) the question.

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SlickMcFav0rit3 t1_j8um26f wrote

There's also the factor of initial viral load.

Jack gets covid, has no symptoms, and only notices because his work did a random screen.

Jane gets covid and dies from lung failure.

Maybe Jack got a single viral particle and his body had plenty of time to ramp up is response but Jane got coughed on by someone chock full o virus and by the time she started producing antibodies her lungs were already saturated.

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pamplemouss t1_j8c0ovx wrote

So would people who “don’t get sick” often be more likely to die from certain things where their under reactive immune systems are a problem? And if so, what kinds of things?

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