One study found a single Omicron wave caused persistent immune damage, with CVD patients losing up to 70% of key immune cells 20 months later.
The findings reframe COVID-19 as an immune-modifying pathogen, stressing that reinfection prevention is crucial.
“SARS-CoV-2 causes lasting epigenetic "scars" that reprogram the immune system, driving chronic inflammation and Long COVID.
Emerging "epidrug" therapies aim to reverse these marks and restore health.”
COVID hacks our gene switches, worsening infection and sparking long(-term) COVID inflammation.
➡️"There is a growing body of evidence pointing towards the diverse roles of epigenetic alterations in COVID-19 severity." ➡️"The pathogenesis of COVID-19 extends far beyond the initial viral infection, revealing a complex and dynamic interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and the host."
“I checked labs on a young patient this am who I suspected was immune damaged after the last five years
His immune cells looked like it was HIV/AIDS, yet he was HIV negative
I am doing this weekly. No other doctor in the hospital is checking
This is why I sounded the alarm a few weeks ago
PCPs must brush up on immunology”
Researchers analyzed 73,000 immune cells from COVID-19 patients.
They found that memory CD8+ T cells stay overactive and exhausted long after infection, keeping the immune system in a low-grade inflammatory state that may drive Long COVID.
“You’re going to see a lot of immune failure and weird infections in young people over the next 5-10 years
It will start to pickup significantly in 2026”
SARS-COV2 COVID at least temporarily causes lymphocytopenia (including T cells) immune suppression. The virus has been found to infect CD8 T cells. HIV AIDS is typically defined by CD4 T cell destruction. This study found COVID infected CD8 T cells.
“The average person’s immune system looks different than it did in 2019. We’re walking around with more inflammation, and with immune systems that don’t work quite as well as they did in the beforetimes”
Covid weakens your immune system. You are less likely to fight off pathogens and that is why you are “always sick”. '“There has definitely been a change in the character of the immune response since 2019,” says Tim Henrich, immunologist and senior author of the study. “It’s certainly impacting our immune health, and probably our overall health as well.”'
SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 both cause CD4⁺ T cell loss, cytokine storms, and immune exhaustion.
Shared mechanisms—like pyroptosis and inhibitory receptor upregulation—suggest overlapping therapeutic targets.
another way Covid weakens our interferon responses so it can invade our brains:
Variants with nsp15 endoribonuclease activity exhibit stronger replication in the respiratory tract, enabling neuroinvasion and causing more severe disease.
