The pandemic is far from over, but we are learning to live with Covid-19, 20, 21, 22, 23 …
As this article from Nature, explains, the problem is ‘imprinting’.
Your immune system produces antibodies to the first strain of a virus (i.e. Covid-19, a.k.a. SARS-CoV 2), to which you were exposed — say the Alpha variant, a process described by those in white lab coats as ‘imprinting’. So if you then catch Omicron, your body’s system will actually produce more antibodies to counter the infection on which it has imprinted (i.e. the Alpha variant), not so much against Omicron. And catching Omicron doesn’t update the imprinting, which might explain why you could be reinfected.
That said, it’s still worthwhile getting boosters tailored to particular variants because you do get some immunity.
“You’re better off having some immunity, no matter what it is”, says Katie Gostic, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois.”