NooneOfConsequence wrote on Jan 27
th, 2021 at 11:35am:
This is a phenomenon where a vaccine appears to work for a little while but then later actually makes the vaccinated person more vulnerable to the disease. Past attempts at vaccines for other corona viruses (used in the generic sense like a common cold... not COVID-19) have yielded this effect in animal studies.
As far as I understand ADE, and I don't mix with the kinds of people who would set me straight on the subtleties any more, you are pretty much open to the same danger regardless of whether the initial 'challenge' to the immune system came from a vaccine or the infectious agent itself. So you might just as easily run into this if you catch the newer variant (or the pedants might be insisting its a 'strain'?) following catching the original.
In any case I believe it is fair to say that the enhancement is a thing that might happen, rather than will.
The main reservation I have about the novel vaccine types is their selective nature. They only partially mimic the components of the virus, and so only prime one part of the immune system. The infection data suggests that is enough to stop serious illness, but it does mean there is initially a whole chunk of the immune system which isn't primed by the vaccine.
..but then... I used to worry about genetically modified crops, or meddling with anything we don't fully understand.
The whole immune system is immensely complicated and still not fully understood. Personally i think its a miracle most of us don't die young from one or other kind of autoimmune disease.