I am particularly vexed by the continued usage of #ImmunityDebt. It is not an established concept, and has never been used prior to the pandemic. And it mixes and matches a) population immunity, which is trivially true, b) individual severity effects, which are not, c) has echoes of the still controversial 'hygiene hypothesis', and d) uses a loaded colloquialism - 'debt' - to whom, and why? Would much prefer we stuck to precise terminology.
@ariskatzourakis I’m keen to hear more about this! Completely agreed re: precise immunology, but is there an accepted explanation for what people seem to be experiencing as more severe colds/flus post-pandemic? And do we have names for it?
@minimammoth @ariskatzourakis are they more severe though? I wonder if what we're seeing is more coinfections as a result of the tripledemic of rsv, flu and covid.
Looking forward to some useful insights please Aris and #medmastadon!
@The_Colbobs @ariskatzourakis oh, absolutely possible of course! Is there a way to know? And if this is the case, why are we getting more co-infections than we used to? The people I’ve known who’ve had this ‘really awful cold/flu’ tested negative for COVID throughout.