'The long-term persistence of a virus depends on the continual availability of newly susceptible individuals through either birth or the loss of immunity that was originally conferred through prior infection or vaccination. Loss of immunity can result from limited host immune memory or from alterations to the viral genome, often referred to as immune or vaccine ‘escape’ mutations. Thadani and colleagues’ focus is on viral mutations that destabilize the binding of ‘neutralizing’ antibodies to the virus (Fig. 1); however, other modes of immune evasion are possible'