6 tweets · January 2023 · 10 likes · 1 retweets · read on Twitter
it sounds like there are like... at least two different types of immune response? "shoot on sight" - obliterates the the virus at low quantities before they can even grow "I know your deal" - recognizes larger pattern once they've grown a bunch; mitigates damage is this right? twitter.com/sailorrooscout…
(this line of inquiry based in part on that tweet but more from the gestalt of this whole latest @TheZvi covid article on XBB, which says "yep, it will spread more, no, P(doom|infected) has not increased") thezvi.substack.com/p/covid-1523-v…
like just trying to reason through... it seems like certain viruses (eg smallpox) get to like 100% immunity because they achieve the first thing in a way that the virus is incapable of mutating around but covid is a sneaky bastard who mutates like fuck, so that doesn't work here
therefore covid achieves immune escape, particularly from the "shoot on sight" by changing its name & hair and dressing up in a new outfit but once it starts to do its shenanigans, the body is much faster & better to be like "we know your deal, die"
so people don't get as sick, but they are still vectors for spreading this new variant of covid in particular, which other people are then more likely to catch in particular because they also don't have "shoot on sight" immunity still?
I assume one of these is like "antibodies" and one of them is like "T-cells" or something? I would like to summon a nerd to explain plz thx 🙏