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DooDooSlinger t1_iu8vi71 wrote

I'm a little confused. This was established weeks after Omicron was detected. What they call "imprinting" has been known as an immunological phenomenon for over a decade (original antigenic sin) and one of the reasons many vaccines require several serotypes to be included in the primary series.

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SnooPuppers1978 t1_iu8xn8y wrote

But why are they refusing to give bivalent vaccines for the first timers then? Why do they still want to give the Wuhan variant, wouldn't that be poor decision in terms of immunological imprinting?

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DooDooSlinger t1_iu9mf4f wrote

There are no clinical studies to evaluate the safety, except as a booster. Besides at this point almost everyone has immunity one way or the other.

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SnooPuppers1978 t1_iuaiij5 wrote

Depending on how immune imprinting works it may still be important to consider even if you already have been exposed. E.g. is the memory something that would bias itself with diminishing influence? E.g. the first time would always stay with 50 percent influence, 2nd time 25, then 12.5, 6... and so on?

What I have read about Influenza imprinting this causes bias to stay since birth for life.

Or how would the formula exactly look like? Seems important to figure out to better make decisions.

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Straight-Plankton-15 t1_iud8uau wrote

Perhaps immune imprinting could also be lessened with the use of highly effective adjuvants that enhance and broaden immune responses, like Matrix-M or CpG 1018.

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DooDooSlinger t1_iufiiay wrote

There is entirely too much focus on humoral immunity in talk about vaccines. It is clear that antigenic drift in SARS cov 2 is extremely rapid and that antibodies are (thankfully) short lived. We will not generate lasting neutralising antibodies with vaccines. But that doesn't matter, the cellular response is extremely strong and much less sensitive to mutations in binding epitopes. For older or immunocompromised people, where t cd8 response is impaired, boosters or long lasting IG are probably the only option for continued protection.

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