I see articles like this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/your-immune-system-is-imprinted-with-its-first-coronavirus-exposure/ar-AA16e57s and I get kinda confused. Is it saying that getting an updated vaccine (or recent infection) will somehow c*ckblock the immune system from being able to handle a new strain?
if you're only exposed to the h3n2 influenza virus while growing up, you lack immunity to the h1n1 virus and it will be far more deadly. The Spanish flu was h1n1, but far deadlier than the swine flu partially because the flu in the years prior to ww1 was h3n2 for a long time. Young adults had little to no immunity to it, so it killed them in greater numbers than younger/elderly people. Young people were resilient because it was their first exposure to flu, and older people had been exposed to more strains in their youth
modern flu vaccines are a cocktail to inoculate for multiple strains because different variants gain prominence each season
idk how scientists can apply this to covid because of how fast covid mutates though