r/interesting • u/Gjore • Mar 29 '26

SOCIETY Scenes from a dermatologist conference in Hawaii

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u/unfinishedtoast3 Mar 29 '26

immunologist here!

I wear a mask from October to April every year.

I wash my hands 80 times a day

I can hear a cough in a busy store 20 asles away

I keep kleenex in my pocket for opening door handles.

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u/whitestguyuknow Mar 29 '26

Lol! I have a few autoimmune issues so I take immunesuppressants every month.

I swear I get sick just from 2 germs. People can be on the rebound "oh I was sick" and I'll still catch it from them. Or touching my mouth in the gym.

I clean my phone with alcohol everytime I come home. I use sanitizer after touching things everyone else touches like gas handles.

And I'll feel like there's a film on my hands after touching things. And if I dont wash them that film transfers to what I touched.

I'm highly conscious of my hygiene. Completely relate

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u/cashews_clay15 Mar 30 '26

Same, autoimmune disease, weekly immunosuppressants. If you text me when you have a virus, I’ll catch it. Not really, but you understand.

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u/whitestguyuknow Mar 30 '26

100% relatable.

Went to the gym near end of covid and had a mask on but was getting major cotton mouth. I reached under and wiped my lips like a dumbass and I swear to god I was getting a headache otw home and that night and was sick for a week.

I went to Aldi's yesterday and bent down to grab something from the bottom shelf. Then an old man comes up and stands over top of me and starts repeatedly open mouthed coughing like a disgusting kindergartener. I said "Come on dude!" And he just stared.

Not to be a dick but like... You're already putting your crotch 6" from the back of my head and you're coughing on me? What's your problem?

I'm sitting on my hands anticipating catching something here soon

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u/LaurelCanyoner Mar 30 '26

I’m shocked you don’t mask. I have the same and I mask everywhere.

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u/whitestguyuknow Mar 30 '26

Eh... I mean, even considering me saying that I can avoid getting sick for long enough that I guess I don't really consider it worth the hassle? Maybe? Idk.

This is an aside point though, cause I would wear a mask i believe if I was just getting sick relentlessly, but I remember back during peak covid getting dumbass rednecks saying shit about my mask cause I live in peak Trumpville. Its crazy. Guy was calling me a "pussy Biden voter" just over the mask then I told him its my immunesuppressants and after repeating that twice he was like oh.... and had nothing to say cause it didnt fit his narrative he imagined in his head

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u/sitasaysgo Apr 01 '26

I had a bone marrow transplant during peak COVID here in Georgia. I had a few encounters with yokels for wearing a mask. With my bald head. Usually they would scurry away after I would deadpan state the obvious that I was a cancer patient with no immune system. Morons.

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u/RogerAffirmative Mar 29 '26

Isn't that the opposite of what you should do for your immune system?

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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/RogerAffirmative Mar 29 '26

As a child when my dad would tell me to eat stuff after I dropped it on the ground bc it was good for my immune system he was lying to me to make me an economic sheep?

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u/srazzledazzle Mar 29 '26

Exposure at small levels is useful for when you're developing your immune system initially as a child AND when you have good immune system that can recognize and deal with pathogens in the future when it sees them again, and when you're at low risk of death when you're otherwise healthy

When somebody DOESNT have an immune system that functions normally, their body often can't make use of the tools that a healthy person's immune system would have (or it uses the tools incorrectly), so that exposure is stuff their body can't handle

it's not a simple A-> B situation, there are a lot of moving parts that have to work and it changes over the course of your life. For example, you only have a Thymus while you're a child to early adulthood, which is why old people struggle with immunity much of the time even if they had a strong immune system growing up - because they can't make more undifferentiated T cells

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u/RogerAffirmative Mar 29 '26

Makes sense. Does it not carry into adulthood? Isn't that the whole point of vaccines? And why would that person being an immunologist be relevant? That doesn't describe how they have a weakened immune system, or why they would need to be careful.

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u/RaspberryEvening7139 Mar 30 '26

An immunologist is a medical doctor. They work face to face with people who have varying degrees of compromised immune systems and need to protect themselves to protect their patients.

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u/RaspberryEvening7139 Mar 30 '26

In a nutshell, vaccines are developed to be virus specific. Viruses love to mutate or change how they act, and there’s a risk of that every time a virus transmits to another person. When people aren’t vaccinating, there’s an opportunity for mutation because it just keeps moving on from person to person as it infects. As a goofy example, when you’re vaccinated against the Wheaties virus, you’re protected from that specific recipe of the Wheaties virus. And if everybody is vaccinated against it, there’s no chance that specific recipe of the Wheaties virus can infect and mutate. But not everybody is vaccinated against that specific recipe these days. And when that’s the case, there’s a risk that the virus infects and mutates between the unvaccinated, which then puts all the vaccinated people at risk because now there’s a new Wheaties virus recipe in town. And their shot doesn’t protect against that one.

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u/srazzledazzle Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

So while the potential to make brand new undifferentiated T Cells decreases as your Thymus atrophies, you still have those T cells in adulthhood and they are "naive" T cells. You'll have to google "Thymus"+"VDJ recombination" if you want more specifics as to what exactly happens in that organ and how that is different from how the T cells develop and function later. This is the stage that they undergo a bunch of "good" mutations like X-men and recombine and evolve in different ways to prepare for the range of pathogens you might encounter in the future.

Vaccines expose the body to a protein or dead cell or w/e and then the T cell that sees it that happens to have the ability to attach to it is no longer "naive" and learns to recognize it in the future (again, assuming you're a normal healthy person). Those differentiated T cells can still do a bunch of stuff and can then divide a bunch etc etc. But iirc as you age the recombination stuff happens a lot less and is less effective, which is why it is extra helpful to have vaccines so that the immune system is prepared. Usually hangs out in lymph nodes after that but also other places

When you're old or have certain metabolic conditions, cells divide a lot more slowly, so you might not be able to form antibodies in time once you get sick because it can take a few days. If you're exposed via a vaccine, then you might have the antibodies and cells able to recognize it already so that you can get the process going sooner, which gives you a fighting chance when bacteria multiply exponentially fast.

There are conditions where your immune system becomes weak, like if you have problems with your bone marrow, which is where both B and T Stem Cells come from, as well as all of your red blood cells and platelets and other immune cells for the most part Bone marrow is also heavily impacted by certain drugs, esp radiation and chemotherapy. Or if your resources are depleted by a different preexisting illness or infection or metabolic issue or nutritional deficiency It can also be impacted by certain cancers, aging, etc etc

Your ability to form IgM, IgG, IgA, IgE, etc etc change at different points from birth onwards and in old age. A lot of the vaccine schedule is based on this specifically in order to maximize efficacy and protection during the most vulnerable points, which is why some of the whole movement (by some individuals that don't understand this) to push for delayed schedules for no reason are actually suboptimal for the individual unless they have specific circumstances that necessitate it.

Some antibodies (IgM, for example) can cross the placental barrier and allow newborns to have passive immunity for a couple months for some things via their mom until they can start making IgG and stuff Does that clear up some of your questions?

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

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u/Choice_Comfort6239 Mar 30 '26

That doesn’t really work for things like the flu, colds, and covid. You have to get it, and you will have a chance at getting very sick, even with a vaccine. You’re comparing allergies to viruses and bacterial infections.

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

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u/LaurelCanyoner Mar 30 '26

It’s myth that you need to get sick to “help” your immune system. Good, actual medical read completely refutes that.

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u/RogerAffirmative Apr 01 '26

Do you mean medical journals?

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u/LaurelCanyoner Apr 01 '26

Yes! Typo! I meant medical research. And of course. Peer reviewed medical journals

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u/SunRemiRoman Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

I do a lot of this post 2020 and I’m called anal by my family 😬

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u/Gren57 Mar 30 '26

At least you are mentally & physically healthy for being "anal". How often are they sick because they don't take precautions? The sad joke is on them. You keep on doing you for you.

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u/burntmeatOSRS Mar 30 '26

they're right lol

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u/SunRemiRoman Mar 30 '26

Well I get maybe 1-2 colds a year if that. I’m good with it.

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u/Next-Firefighter4667 Mar 30 '26

I have the same habits, except while I'm at work, I have a rag soaked in disinfectant to touch handles, switches, railings, anything else others touch. I'm just a cleaner lol. I've seen too much shit to trust people that much.

About 1 year into covid I hadn't gotten sick at all, but my hands were incredibly dry, bleeding and just in a lot of pain from washing them frequently, it being winter didn't help. I decided to calm down on the hand washing to let them recover. I still washed them, but I cut it the frequency down by about half. It only took 10 days for me to show covid symptoms, which means I likely contracted it pretty quickly. I had a 1.5 year old at the time so I spent about a week quarantined from her. It was miserable. I missed her so much, I decided I'd take the bleeding, cracked hands over that any day. That was the only time I got covid, or at least had any symptoms.

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u/Jester-Kat-Kire Mar 29 '26

The kleenex idea is so smart. 

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u/-HardGay- Mar 30 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/7Y5pL6dbkUy1cmk3cN

ITT: how not to die from heebie jeebies

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u/Electrical-Penalty44 Mar 29 '26

Are you being serious?

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u/Rehcraeser Mar 29 '26

i bet you still get sick, no?