About "Immunity Debt"

In a piece written for The Conversation, Ana Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, explains why the army of microbes living inside of your gut is essential for fighting off threats, including the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Immunity debt" can explain this year’s eye-popping cold and flu season — but it can also be dangerously misinterpreted.

"A safer bet — for immune systems young, old, and everywhere in between — is not getting sick to begin with. Wearing masks, maximizing our indoor air’s ventilation and filtration, and other pandemic-era strategies prevent more than just Covid-19."https://t.co/gamL5IOLnM— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) December 5, 2022

Immunity debt — the idea that our immune systems become weak if we're not regularly exposed to pathogens — is a popular (and wrong) conception of how the body works

As the number of hospitalized children with influenza, RSV, COVID-19 and other infections continues to soar, multiple media outlets have published stories suggesting one of the causes of the severi…

The increases in pediatric respiratory syncytial virus infections and related hospitalizations are not due to an “immunity debt” created by masking and stay-at-home orders issued during the Covid-19 pandemic. So-called immunity debt is a flawed conjecture that is not based on science.

At the beginning of the fifth season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we the audience are introduced to a character, Dawn, we have never seen before. Intriguingly, every character

Infectious disease experts say term and its surrounding narrative are dangerous and can promote Covid-19 misinformation

We need more than just plausible-sounding narratives that are not backed up with rigorous scientific data.

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

Hi, it’s Immanual in New York. As respiratory illnesses spread across the US, an unfamiliar medical term has been cropping up in some media coverage. I’d like to tell you a little more about it, but first...

“I don’t necessarily like ‘immunity debt’ becoming a coined phrase,” Dr. Sarah Combs, an emergency medicine doctor at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told Fortune.

The claim is that such "immunity debt" has led to the recent surges in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections among young children.

Immunity debt vs post covid immune deficiency (PCID).Not an immunology expert, but here are 25 papers/articles that collectively argue for PCID.Immunity debt is a made up term that reflects poor science. 🧵— Andrew Ewing (@AndrewEwing11) November 3, 2022

Do not let anyone convince you that you need to get sick to be healthy. This is very silly.While the day we fully understand the immune system will probably never come, there are a few things we can say for sure about how exposure to microbes impact your immune health...— Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD (@kmpanthagani) October 1, 2022

“Immunity debt” is a made up term that DID NOT EXIST UNTIL LAST YEAR & is marketed (ie used to gain followers) to explain why children who were not exposed to normal childhood viruses during the COVID pandemic are now becoming sick when exposed to normal childhood viruses. pic.twitter.com/kJlbkT3Ssb— Dr. Dave Stukus (@AllergyKidsDoc) November 5, 2022

A word on the idiocy known as "immunity debt". How did such a nonsensical idea take hold?Simple. The obvious mental model for our immune system is a muscle: use it or lose it. Muscles atrophy when we don't use them. The same mental model works for our memories & skills. 1/19— Colin Furness MISt PhD MPH (@FurnessColin) November 6, 2022

Sweden - never masked nor locked downRSV season worse this year than last year.Just to say once again that 'immunity debt' and blaming masks and social distancing is bullshit https://t.co/HmFeyFh4I7— Irene Tosetti, MD MBA MPH (@itosettiMD_MBA) January 8, 2023

This is a really brilliant representation of Denmark’s RSV admissions data. It shows what I’ve been trying to explain for a while now. Delaying RSV exposure is *good*. The babies born in the 20/21 “gap year” experienced a net *benefit* by dodging RSV en masse as infants. 1/ https://t.co/X2U045FHPS pic.twitter.com/HlBwVQ8Bah— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) November 28, 2022

The “immunity debt” hypothesis was introduced into the literature (aka invented) in 2021 by the same doctor that previously said kids don’t spread covid to adults and hypothesized that it’s because they’re short so their coughs are too low to reach us. How did that one turn out?— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) October 4, 2022

Part 2 of 2 Immunity Debt@ laughterinlight is on TikTok https://t.co/iYC5jlji5O pic.twitter.com/ZdYrw0eOFk— SharonBC,Canada (@SharonBurnabyBC) January 6, 2023

Part 1 of 2 Immunity Debt@ laughterinlight is on TikTok https://t.co/iYC5jlji5O pic.twitter.com/Ii94G9UyGA— SharonBC,Canada (@SharonBurnabyBC) January 6, 2023