Do we worry about new variants of other viruses?

[Mybigbed]

Genuine question.

Now that most people are vaccinated or due to be very soon and we are fairly confident of a decent ongoing supply of vaccines and have the infrastructure to carry them out, the only thing that will set us back is new variants.

But why don’t we worry that, for example, we’ll get a new variant of measles? Is it because the vaccine for measles is less targeted than covid?

In the case of the measles virus, hasn’t shown any signs yet of evolving in ways that evade the immune system.

I don’t think the measles virus changes much, that’s why most people have lifelong immunity if they catch it. Flu obviously has different variants so booster jabs and they do monitor new variants I suppose.

There are two types of HIV

Two types of HIV have been characterized: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the virus that was originally discovered (and initially referred to also as LAV or HTLV-III). It is more virulent, more infective,[96] and is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The lower infectivity of HIV-2 as compared with HIV-1 implies that fewer people exposed to HIV-2 will be infected per exposure. Because of its relatively poor capacity for transmission, HIV-2 is largely confined to West Africa.[97]

The quadrivalent flu vaccine is updated every year for this reason.

The fact that this specific virus evolved from a previous corona virus, which the population would have had general immunity to, seems to have evaded most people. This virus is a variant, of a previous virus which was endemic.

Flu is different, it evolves quickly, therefore we haven't become generally immune, although people don't have flu every year.

People have been worried about 'flu variants, such as bird and swine, and we should be worried about any new variant of any disease. However we tend,as a population, to only worry about pressing issues.

@Speedymarie

The fact that this specific virus evolved from a previous corona virus, which the population would have had general immunity to, seems to have evaded most people. This virus is a variant, of a previous virus which was endemic.

Flu is different, it evolves quickly, therefore we haven't become generally immune, although people don't have flu every year.

And it's evaded all the scientists, and the WHO, too? But not SpeedyMarie?

Must be because she's so speedy!

Yes, 3 out of 4 in my household were hospitalised with swine flu. The recovery was horrendous.

We generally only worry about new variants of viruses/bacteria when they start causing issues (increase in medical presentations or increase of lack of response to medication)
and don’t generally go looking for them otherwise. It’s more of a reactive situation than proactive.

I think the last couple of decades western countries have been occupied with bacteria’s that have caused issues because of antibiotic resistance. So things like MRSA, TB and gonorrhoea have received far more attention than relatively stable viruses which we have vaccination programmes for even when things like measles have increased due to vaccine hesitancy.