The Covid-19 pandemic hit millions of people hard across the world and even devastated thousands of lives. The ones who suffered from the disease know the real pain of getting infected and surviving in the tough times. While we talk a lot about the people who got the infection and recovered, there are many who did not get infected despite being surrounded by Covid-19 patients.
A report of the Washington Post published in May this year tried to look into the magical spell the people had who never got infected. The unpredictability of Coronavirus has surprised many health experts. Even amid rising cases of infections caused by the more lethal Omicron variant many people did not get infected.
According to a recent report published in the Washington Post, those who have remained safe against the Coronavirus can provide more insights into the disease than those who got infected and recovered. The report states that an international study is in progress to find out the genetic element that is resisting infection by Coronavirus.
András Spaan, a clinical microbiologist and fellow at the Rockefeller University in New York, is leading the research and he has enrolled 700 participants under the study. Spaan is screening over 5,000 people who have remained immune to Covid-19 infections. Repeated tests for infection and antibodies have been conducted on this group, according to the report.
A participant named Bevin Strickland, a nurse anesthetist, who has volunteered for the study, recalled how she did not get infection despite working with the Covid-19 patients. According to Bevin, she was taking off her mask all the time at the hospital where she works. Despite not wearing a mask, she didn’t get the infection. This made her volunteer for the study.
Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health told the Washington Post that studying the genes and other biological traits of people, who never catch the coronavirus, could shed light on how the virus develops, or how it infects the human body.
In past studies it has been found that there is an association between certain genetic variants and people’s immunity against communicable diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and the flu. Now, the new study aims to find out if such a genetic element could exist for Covid-19.
