Re:What the Omicron wave is revealing about human immunity
by nradov on Thursday February 03, 2022 @10:29PM
(#30202490)
No one who is familiar with viruses considers other human coronaviruses to be "the flu". They aren't even in the same phylum! All influenza viruses are Negarnaviricota whereas all coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2 are Pisuviricota.
There are four other endemic human coronaviruses which typically cause common cold symptoms. Those symptoms are clinically distinct from the flu in most cases.
Re:What the Omicron wave is revealing about human immunity
by notahacker on Thursday February 03, 2022 @05:14PM
(#30199772)
What we call the flu also includes a wide variety of viral illnesses better known as the common cold, which includes some coronaviruses - the flu shots offer no protection against most of these different viruses
What medical practitioners call the flu is a small subset of influenza viruses common in humans, each with a high potential for reinfection, including reinfections within a year (as well as constantly evolving variant strains, just like COVID)
What we call the flu is not a single virus that comes once a year. It's different types of virusses each time, and the flu vaccine targets the most likely candidates of that year. So no, you don't generally get REinfected with the flu, because it's a different virus. Some of the virusses that we consider 'the flu' are actually corona virusses, and perhaps covid19 will join that list as it becomes endemic.