Why isn’t our immune systems completely immune to things like the common cold?

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I mean common cold has been around for a long time. How has the immune system not learned how to fight it?

In: Biology

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Anonymous 0 Comments

First of all the Common Cold isn’t something you can be immune to because it’s a bunch of symptoms and not a pathogen.

The Common Cold is caused by different viruses. Most of them are Rhinoviruses but some are Coronaviruses and some others I can’t remember. The vast majority of colds are caused by Rhinoviruses and here’s the catch……………….. there’s around 200 different strains of them. There’s also different strains of the other viruses but almost all that cause the Common Cold are Rhinoviruses. That’s a lot of viruses and their strains you would have to develop an immunity to. I doubt you catch that many colds.

And finally, on top of that, they have the nasty little habit of mutating. So, by the time you get around to contracting the same strain again it’s probably mutated so much that your immune system no longer recognises it.

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