Why COVID keeps coming back — and why Mike’s work (and boosters) still matter
One of the hardest things for people to understand about COVID is why it keeps infecting us again and again, even after vaccination or prior infection.
Mike Honey’s work helps make that visible — and understandable.
What Mike is showing, using antigenic mapping, is essentially how COVID keeps changing its disguise.
Each new variant moves just far enough away from previous versions that our immune system doesn’t recognise it as well.
When a variant sits far from earlier ones on these maps, it means antibodies made from vaccination or past infection don’t “grab” it as easily.
That makes reinfection much easier, even in populations with high immunity.
This does not mean vaccines don’t work.
They still do the most important job: reducing severe illness, hospitalisation, and death.
What it does mean is that vaccines — like prior infection — are less reliable at fully stopping infection when the virus has changed enough.
This is also why boosters matter.
Boosters refresh and broaden immune protection, raising antibody levels and improving the immune system’s ability to recognise newer variants.
They don’t make infection impossible, but they reduce the chance of severe disease and help limit the damage when infections do occur — especially as the virus continues to evolve.
Mike’s analysis also helps explain why waves can keep coming in quick succession.
Immunity from one recent variant may not protect well against the next if that next variant is antigenically distant.
COVID isn’t just spreading randomly — it’s actively adapting to survive in an immune population.
Why this matters: repeated infections aren’t harmless.
Even when illness is described as “mild,” reinfections increase the risk of long-term health problems, including Long COVID and other chronic impacts.
At a population level, that adds up — and helps explain why disability rates have risen during the pandemic years.
Mike’s ongoing work is valuable because it turns complex immunology into something we can actually see and reason about.
It shows, very clearly, how COVID has become extremely good at persisting by adapting, and why tools like updated vaccines and boosters remain important in reducing harm over time.
Credit to @Mike_Honey_ for continuing to make sense of how this virus evolves — and why reinfection remains a central part of the COVID story.
One of the hardest things for people to understand about COVID is why it keeps infecting us again and again, even after vaccination or prior infection.
Mike Honey’s work helps make that visible — and understandable.
What Mike is showing, using antigenic mapping, is essentially how COVID keeps changing its disguise.
Each new variant moves just far enough away from previous versions that our immune system doesn’t recognise it as well.
When a variant sits far from earlier ones on these maps, it means antibodies made from vaccination or past infection don’t “grab” it as easily.
That makes reinfection much easier, even in populations with high immunity.
This does not mean vaccines don’t work.
They still do the most important job: reducing severe illness, hospitalisation, and death.
What it does mean is that vaccines — like prior infection — are less reliable at fully stopping infection when the virus has changed enough.
This is also why boosters matter.
Boosters refresh and broaden immune protection, raising antibody levels and improving the immune system’s ability to recognise newer variants.
They don’t make infection impossible, but they reduce the chance of severe disease and help limit the damage when infections do occur — especially as the virus continues to evolve.
Mike’s analysis also helps explain why waves can keep coming in quick succession.
Immunity from one recent variant may not protect well against the next if that next variant is antigenically distant.
COVID isn’t just spreading randomly — it’s actively adapting to survive in an immune population.
Why this matters: repeated infections aren’t harmless.
Even when illness is described as “mild,” reinfections increase the risk of long-term health problems, including Long COVID and other chronic impacts.
At a population level, that adds up — and helps explain why disability rates have risen during the pandemic years.
Mike’s ongoing work is valuable because it turns complex immunology into something we can actually see and reason about.
It shows, very clearly, how COVID has become extremely good at persisting by adapting, and why tools like updated vaccines and boosters remain important in reducing harm over time.
Credit to @Mike_Honey_ for continuing to make sense of how this virus evolves — and why reinfection remains a central part of the COVID story.
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