Open Thread: Let's talk about OAS/Immune Imprinting

What do you know, what are your thoughts, is it happening with the vaccines? Let me know what you think, and let's have a discussion!

One of the cardinal rules of the internet is to not read the comments. In general, it’s probably a good rule to live by. However, sometimes you can learn a lot about someone’s perspectives based on the comments they leave.

So scouring around the comments of different Substack publishers it’s always very interesting to see the thoughts of readers and how they interact with posts.

Recently I’ve seen some people comment on other people’s posts stating that there’s a lot they don’t understand. Usually this is fine since there’s so much information that you’re bound to come across something that may take several readings or additional research to figure out (things most people usually don’t have time for).

But in some of these posts I came across interesting comments. Well, not necessarily interesting; maybe more concerning comments.

Generally, I’ve seen a few comments from people along the lines of, “I didn’t understand X, but Y is such a great writer!”, or something such as, “I have no idea what this means, but this all sounds very scary and horrifying!”.

These comments are generally concerning because it indicates there’s probably a good deal of people not knowing what they are reading, or how to parse the information, but are well aware that they should respond emotionally (I’m not sure how you can think someone’s writing is great if you don’t understand what you’re reading…). This can be dangerous when this line of thinking leads to biases or groupthink rather than scientific inquiry and critical thinking.

This creates a difficult predicament: as publishers we never know what our readers know, and when things get a bit technical it’s easy to lose a lot of readers (I know, I’ve gotten quite a good deal of comments that my posts are too technical) in the thick of science terms and literature analyses.

In some ways, it serves as a good time for many of us to check back and see how much our readers are absorbing, or whether they really understand what’s going on with the science.

So I’m using this post as one of these moments to ask all of you how much you know of the topic of Original Antigenic Sin/ Immune Imprinting. It’s come up so often in other Substacks, and it’s taken on a life of its own as an explanation for what is going on with these vaccines. Even several papers have come out remarking about immune imprinting, suggesting that even many researchers are looking into the matter.

I’ve written posts myself months ago in which I rebutted some of the general ideas surrounding OAS (the first one can be found below):

About Original Antigenic Sin...

and have been considering revisiting the talk of OAS, but instead of maybe rehashing my position I wanted to see what all of your opinions on to really see where gaps in your knowledge may lie.

But let me also be very clear: this is all new territory for me as well. I wouldn’t even consider myself even at novice level- I’m learning a lot of this at the same time many of your are.

However, if the pursuit of knowledge and facts are what’s important, then it’s important to what some of the facts are and where possible gaps in knowledge are.

So I want to open up this post to people to freely provide their thoughts on OAS/Immune Imprinting, and see what your thoughts are. Please note that this is a discussion so hopefully there can be many questions asked and many perspectives provided!

In order to help get things rolling, consider some of the following questions (note that some of these questions are intentionally technical to see what people know):

• Do you know what Original Antigenic Sin/ Immune Imprinting is?

• What do you know about OAS?

• Do you think the vaccines are leading to immune imprinting/ OAS?

• What role would natural immunity play in OAS?

• How far back does OAS go? Does the issue of OAS start when we are born, or is it only a phenomenon when we are older?

• If OAS is based on prior immune responses, what role would other infections play?

• If we caught a coronavirus infection when younger, would that lead to some form of immune imprinting and thus affect our response to both SARS-COV2 and the COVID vaccine? Or is the response to both SARS-COV2 and the vaccine wholly separate?

• Would there be any benefit to OAS? Or is it completely detrimental?

• What role would cross-reactive antibodies play in explaining OAS/Immune Imprinting?

• Are there other alternatives to OAS that may explain the effects of prior antigen exposure on immune response?

• Does OAS apply to only one antigen, or does it affect other antigens as well?

• How would you measure OAS/Immune Imprinting in a study? What would be some limitations of such studies?

• How often do you check links in posts?

  • This is more of a general question. Also, if it concerns anyone do know that Substack tells us if you click on a link, so many of us publishers actually know if you are being honest…

• Do you generally do additional research, or do you take information at face value?

• What factors do you use to gauge the veracity of the information you read?

• How do you find other sources of information?

• Recently Dr. Malone wrote about Immune Imprinting in two separate posts (first one linked here).

  • For those who have read it: how much did you understand from this post, or from the second post?

  • Did you read the article for yourself?

    • https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1841

  • * Note that this is absolutely not a critique of Dr. Malone. I’m linking to his Substack since he has been one of the most recent people to cover OAS. Also, since he has a large audience I assume many people here are likely to have read his posts.

There’s definitely a lot more questions I can ask, but hopefully this can get a bit of a discussion going. Please let me and others know what you think below!

And if this ends up flopping, well I’m sure I can find a can of White Claw hidden somewhere in my fridge! But until then I shall wait in anticipation!