Both of our children had allergies and asthma growing up. Our son's symptoms didn't qualify for allergy immunotherapy by injection. The risk of anaphylaxis exists for each injection for the full duration of treatment...several years...and must be weighed against the degree of illness. Our daughter's symptoms were much worse, but her skin test and her total IgE were negative.

We moved to a new practice that offered sublingual allergy immunotherapy, which does not carry the risk of anaphylaxis. It has been used for decades in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe without issue. While it's available in the US, it's not covered by health insurance and is quite expensive. We started our son on it right away. Our daughter's skin and blood tests were still negative, even though she was more symptomatic. In fact, we had switched practices because we discovered that she had severe adrenal suppression (and growth suppression) secondary to inhaled micrograms of fluticasone propionate (Flovent). The doctor who had been treating her at CHOP refused to accept the diagnosis from the Growth Center at his own hospital, so we left.

While we were going through the work up, I convinced my husband to make dramatic changes to our home to make it safer for her We moved out and had hardwood floors installed throughout. Paradoxically, about 18 months after we cleaned up the home environment, her skin tests turned positive. She was allergic to everything. This is not uncommon.

Over the next few years, I was able to take them off all asthma maintenance medications. Our son sometimes takes Claritin. Our daughter uses an antihistamine nasal spray. In effect, allergy immunotherapy was a de facto cure for them.

So, the question isn't just academic for me. It's personal. I would have preferred they stay on allergy immunotherapy forever. It's basically homeopathic. But I lost that argument.

If the immune tolerance generated by allergy immunotherapy (which involves years of injections or years of drops under the tongue) wears off over time when the therapy is stopped, perhaps the apparent immune tolerance generated by the mRNA jabs will also wear off...as long as people stop getting jabbed. What I don't know is whether repeated exposure to new variants will accelerate the "wearing off" or fix the immune tolerance.

It seems to me that the allergy-immunology doctors might have some insight.