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Comment by ahelwer | Hacker News Reader

Yep. I went from being sick roughly one week out of every 1-2 months before covid to only getting sick maybe once a year now that I mask in public places, thoroughly wash my hands with soap every time I arrive somewhere, and occasionally wash my phone. Never going back. This whole "train your immune system" thing is BS. Hygiene is important!

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I muse to myself, without a shred of evidence, that masks do "train your immune system". Since they are no where near perfect, pathogens do make it though. However, the "initial viral load" is much smaller, giving your body more time to mount an effective defense. So, I would like to believe you are not neglecting your immune system by masking. Rather, by not overloading it, just being less sick than the unmasked, on average. Who knows, it might even train better this way.

I want to carry you on my shoulders among a cheering crowd.

> However, the "initial viral load" is much smaller, giving your body more time to mount an effective defense.

That's a myth from the early pandemic. Viral dose doesn't correlate with disease severity:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-relationship-viral-do...

But:

the likelihood of becoming infected may rise with the size of that "dose."

So a small dose might still prime the immune system even if you don't get sick.

> the likelihood of becoming infected may rise with the size of that "dose."

This is correct.

> So a small dose might still prime the immune system even if you don't get sick.

This does not follow.

If you don't get infected following a small dose, you'll have fought it off with your innane or intrinsic defenses. You won't generate any humoral immunity, form T-cells or B-cells or neutralizing antibodies and won't be any better off for the next round with the virus.

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