[notabee]

From what I understand, the immune system has some capacity to anticipate mutations. The most basic function of antibodies is to stick to and neutralize the target, in this case the spike protein that the mRNA vaccine presents to the immune system via producing some copies in muscle cells. But the immune system doesn't just produce exact form-fitting duplicate antibodies, it also has something like a biological "fuzzer" that also produces antibodies to target anticipated mutations to its main target, the spike protein. Each time this system gets stimulated, it not only makes more antibodies and more memory cells to produce them, it also runs some more anticipatory mutations. So in aggregate, hopefully the increased quantity plus maturation of these various antibody tweaks produce enough antibodies that stick well enough to the virus to incapacitate or slow it down so that the other aspects of the immune system have time to react instead of getting overwhelmed. And it makes sense to have an antibody arms race like this since viruses mutate so fast. Obviously, this doesn't always work and viruses frequently out-mutate the immune memory, but the immune system is pretty smart.

By the way, if there are any actual scientists here that spot some atrocious mistake I've made describing this, please let me know. I find it really interesting to learn about but I'm certainly no expert.

[lborsato]

Unfortunately as a result of original antigenic sin, the fact that the immune system has been trained for by a vaccine for a certain strain means that the body will respond to that strain, likely unable to mount a new defence for the different strain.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33692194/

[freemint]

Virologist are aware of this but I seen no indication that it applies to the CoVi variants we are currently dealing with.