Editing 2557: Immunity

This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic|2020-21 pandemic}} of the {{w|SARS-CoV-2}} virus, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}, specifically regarding the [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].

[[Cueball]], by way of questioning, points out to [[White Hat]] that this makes no sense. Contracting the natural disease is the thing people are trying to ''prevent''. Diseases are bad {{citation needed}}.

Vaccination offers the same immunity without the negative intermediate step of infection. And in the middle of explaining why getting infected is the best way to avoid getting infected White Hat thus realizes that he has been told BS by other  {{w|Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaxxers}}, and thus stops mid sentence.

The title text elaborates on this by pointing out that people with ''no'' understanding of the immune system will understand that contracting a disease to avoid contracting a disease is a bad idea, and that people with a ''strong'' understanding of the immune system will understand that vaccines are a good idea. It is thus only people with a ''limited'' understanding of the immune system, who know that infection can provide immunity but haven't thought out the disadvantages of catching the disease, who would make a claim such as White Hat does.

Older folks may be familiar with the "infection gives you immunity" trope due to their experience with so-called "childhood diseases". Before there were vaccines for e.g. measles, mumps, and chickenpox, it was seen as preferable for young children to contract these diseases, because the risk of serious illness is greater for those who get "first infections" later in life. Children run a comparatively smaller risk of serious illness in return for (usually) life-long immunity.  The trope has outlived its context. Small as the risk to children of serious illness from measles, mumps, and chickenpox might be, vaccines all but eliminate the risk of contracting serious symptoms at all, so there is no sensible reason to subject oneself to infection.  

The trope, moreover, is misapplied to COVID-19, because, on present evidence (and as with influenza), immunity from infection is short-lived, so there is no benefit to be gained by running the risk of winding up in the hospital - or the morgue. The better comparison is to diseases that have a high probability of serious illness at any age, such as poliomyelitis and smallpox, for which few accepted the "infection gives you immunity" trope (even though, for those diseases, infection typically yielded life-long immunity), and there was far less resistance to effective vaccines once these became available.