Well that was fast. We were just talking about RFK Jr.’s recent comments on the measles outbreak in several southern states, mainly Texas, and how those comments were dangerous. The HHS Secre…

Remember when politicians said everyone should get covid to develop heard-immunity? And then we had more than one million deaths since then?

  • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
    87·
    1 day ago

    Also measles resets your immune system. Your immune system keeps records of all the crap it’s fought, making it easier to fight next time. When you get measles, it’s like you’re a new born. So he’s not only allowing ppl to die, he’s making it easier for future illnesses to kill as well.

    article on measles

    Two studies of unvaccinated children in an Orthodox Protestant community in the Netherlands found that measles wipes out the immune system’s memory of previous illnesses, returning it to a more baby-like state, and also leaves the body less equipped to fight off new infections.

    The first paper, led by Velislava Petrova, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Cambridge University, says measles erodes two separate lines of defence of the immune system.

    To tackle previously unseen infections, the immune system relies on constantly pumping out a diverse range of immune cells – thousands of different varieties, each with slightly different receptors on their surfaces, with a collective ability to recognise almost any pathogen.

    “The more diverse range of them we have, the better,” said Petrova. However, after measles, the children had a far more restricted range.

    The immune system also creates long-lived memory cells, which remain permanently in circulation, allowing the body to rapidly recognise and eliminate previously encountered infections.

    However, after measles, a substantial proportion of immune memory cells had disappeared from the children’s blood, in what the scientists described as “immune amnesia”. This could even mean that children who become infected with measles may need to be revaccinated for previous diseases.

      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.socialEnglish
        131·
        20 hours ago

        No.

        The problem isn’t people who have been vaccinated against measles, the problem is people who haven’t, can’t, or are otherwise immunocompromised.

        Those people would have all of their immunities reset. People who don’t get measels because they have the vaccination will be unaffected.

        Plus the current COVID variant is quite unlike the one in 2021, and we’ll all need to get vaccinated against the next surviving variant anyway. Coronaviruses suck in that way.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          6·
          18 hours ago

          I… didn’t say the problem was people vaccinated against measles? I’m saying unvaccinated people will have their COVID immunity reset, regardless of natural immunity from previous infections. Basically the pandemic starts over for unvaccinated people.

          • peoplebeproblems@midwest.socialEnglish
            3·
            12 hours ago

            Let me rephrase it. Since COVID is endemic, their immunities being reset won’t matter much, and that’s why we still need to get an annual vaccine.

            The plus side to that is that when a virus becomes endemic its usually less severe (which it has been). This is an evolutionary thing, as the virus that propagates more if it’s not killing its hosts.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
              2·
              8 hours ago

              My understanding is that COVID hasn’t simply become less severe, we’ve become more immune due to exposure. Our immune systems have adjusted to COVID after basically everyone has been infected or vaccinated.

            • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
              5·
              12 hours ago

              I think to answer his question precisely (if I’m understanding your correctly) is that yes, it would wipe out the COVID immunity for the COVID variant that you used to be immune to. But it doesn’t matter because COVID keeps mutating into new variants and the immunity to the older variant won’t help you.