Notably, at the third timepoint ‐ immediately before re‐infection ‐ Dex+ CD8+ T cells failed to respond to cognate peptide stimulation and remained at a very low frequency, in contrast to the robust expansion observed following the primary (timepoint 2) and secondary (timepoint 4) infections, indicating impaired recall responsiveness during this pre‐re‐infection phase. Here, CD8A is linked to infection.