More politics with words. ‘Hybrid immunity’. Most meanings of the word immunity mean to be resistant to…

More politics with words. ‘Hybrid immunity’. Most meanings of the word immunity mean to be resistant to infection. But the politics of Covid has again subtly revolved around words, and transformed it into ‘having less severe disease’. I’m not an immunologist, but I can’t…/1 https://t.co/OEnhp45m7e

…find definitions of immunity in reputable texts that extend its meaning to ‘making disease less severe’. You’re either immune, or not-immune. Not half-immune, like half-pregnant. Yes you can have a whole variety of immune *response*, some of which makes you less sick. /2

And the symptomatic disease you experience is often your actual immune response to the pathogen, not the pathogen itself. So by dampening the immune response, you can have less severe disease. But in a way that’s a weakening of the immune system, *less* immunity. /3

I’ve seen some experts question whether the suppression of our Covid immune response (via the current vaccines) is in fact providing greater opportunity for the virus to set up reservoirs throughout our bodies. Again, immunology is a highly complex field, and I don’t know…/4

…whether that’s what’s happening or not. But anybody can check the meanings of words. Our CMO this week again published opinion showing that he’s leading a response to Covid that is not about providing immunity from disease at all. He attributed…/5 https://t.co/vAqVFFkqw6

…lower levels of severe disease to ‘hybrid immunity’. Suggesting that people being vaccinated and infected is making them less sick with each new infection. That may be the case, but is it immunity? Isn’t it just an immune response, at best? (And maybe a dangerous one?) /6

Hybrid and herd immunity are also mixed in these announcements. Herd immunity isn’t always mentioned, but the clear implication is that all of this supposed hybrid immunity is building towards herd immunity. The more we all get infected, the more ‘immune’ we’ll get, and thus…/7

…the herd will become more resistant to spread. But there’s no evidence or even mention of all of these infections preventing infection itself, just severe disease. You get no herd immunity at all if everybody is still getting infected. Again, hybrid immunity seems the exact…/8

…immunological equivalent to being half-pregnant. Political spin retrofitted back into health science. To finish, what’s delicious here is the etymology. The origin of the word immunity is the Latin ‘immunis’. Which meant exemption from public responsibilities, like taxation. /9

That meaning is still used in legal and financial circles, as in ‘immunity from prosecution’. But I find it hilarious that the politics of Covid minimisation, which derives from those who oppose ‘public’ anything, the anti-State/pro-market folk, has eagerly adopted immunity…/10

…as our supposed way out of this pandemic. They know all about immunity, it’s the centre of their belief system. ‘Freedom’ from public responsibility, for anything. /end

Reading some more on this, ‘partial immunity’, leading to reduction in severity of disease, is a concept in use. As is this leading to full immunity, in some cases. The question still is, does this work for SARS-Cov-2?