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johnwayne1 t1_iwpwwal wrote

Is it true the common flu is variations of the Spanish flu that just never went away but we built up some immunity to it and the same will happen with covid?

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haley_bridgewater t1_iwrfpsx wrote

The 1918 influenza is called the H1N1 strain and it is still around today. The flu differs from COVID-19 in one big way. Influenza virus mutates very quickly, which is why we need a new vaccine yearly that covers for different strains. Luckily with Influenza, you can get some protection against similar strains because the mutations are usually small changes. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand does mutate, but not as rapidly. We don't yet know how our immune systems are going to respond to different strains of SARS-CoV-2. There is some evidence that previous infection with omicron can protect against other variants, but this is still under investigation.

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