kurai_tori

kurai_tori t1_jdjcc0h wrote

This is why I've been sure to get the lastest booster and am still relatively careful. I don't want to be a cog in the damn viruses' mechanisms. I want my immune system to be able to say "this isn't free real estate".

Cause if you get infected, even if it's asymptomatic, you are a carrier/vector at that point. And you give the virus a chance to thrive, and mutate, and possible mutate to a worse form (viruses can be fatal as long as that still allows them to thrive, and direction of mutation is not always to safer, less fatal forms. Really it's whatever features allow them to outcompete their competitors).

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kurai_tori t1_jdjboh1 wrote

This is why the latest booster is based on the mRNA of two variants. Both to increase your immunity to an increased number of variants (there is some cross protection from related variants, depends on how similar the spike protein/antigen is to the original that the antibodies previously produced (e.g. via vaccination).) as well as to increase your "standing army" of antibodies (specific antibodies levels drop after a while, leaving memory cells that will "activate" when reexposed to the Covid antigen (variant-specfic spike protein). Problem is the memory cell response might be too slow, hence the need for boosters of the same variant.

Flu shots are a good example of this and we will likely be moving to a similar approach with COVID.

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