Thread by @NjbBari3

I can’t be bothered getting into the “is SARS-CoV-2 HIV” debate.

It’s no more likely to be exactly the same as HIV, as it is going to be exactly the same as the flu.

Is some form of acquired immunity-deficiency possible… maybe. Keep getting infected and we may find out.

T-cells are being activated when they don’t need to be though. That means that they may attack the wrong things (autoimmunity) or be switched off because the are not required. When they are switched off, they become unresponsive. ->

Unresponsive means that if something (virus, cancer cells, other bugs) comes along later that might have been recognised by that T-cell, it is no longer available to participate.

We have also seen T cells being destroyed in COVID-19 syncytia. So some may be lost there too. ->

Most things have more than one feature for a T cell to recognise though, so the amount of T cell loss before an immunodeficiency due to COVID-19 might be apparent is again unclear. ->

In the immediate post viral period, many viruses cause a relative immune suppression due to many reasons.

Fungal infections and bacteria often invade in this post-viral phase. Reactivation of latent viruses is also common.

We have also seen that macrophages can be infected directly. Some people think of macrophages as the conductor to the orchestra. Infected macrophages may send out all sorts of signals, and the rest of the orchestra will play very badly. news-medical.net/amp/news/20200…

So no… I can’t neatly put SARS-CoV-2 into a box with other viruses from other families, but I can tell you that it is no good for the immune system,it has multiple methods by which is can suppress immunity or over activate it, and immune system breakdown is not far-fetched.