Research into why some people don't get COVID

[Montero]

We finally know why some people got COVID while others didn’t

In a human ‘challenge trial’ we deliberately infected volunteers with COVID to get the answer.

theconversation.com

 

[Dave]

I've caught COVID just this last week for the very first time ever (I've been vaccinated four times). I've been in contact with infected people before without being infected. I probably caught this at a Wedding or at an Airport (no one tells you if they have it now, few even test so may not know, and they don't stay home anymore.) I'm probably no longer infectious now, but my wife went everywhere that I went too, and she still hasn't caught it (also four vaccinations.) She has tested negative, and as well as being positive, I also had some of the weird symptoms that aren't usual with influenza (such as the lost of taste.)

So, I read that article to discover why I have it and my wife doesn't. I'm sorry but I still don't understand. The lack of a certain gene can't explain why I didn't get it for four and a half years (we were even in Singapore at the very beginning of it all) but I do now???

 

[Danny McG]

It's allegedly mutated so there's new strains floating around.
We'll all get mpox soon and our COVID jabs won't mean a thing

 

[Swank]

Before she died, my 100 year old grandmother had COVID without any symptoms. They only found that out because everyone in her home got tested for antibodies.

My parents, wife and I have never gotten it.

 

[Alex The G and T]

You've heard of "Dances with Wolves?"
Meet "Sleeps with COVID."

My wife got it. I never caught it.
We sleep in the same bed and breathe the same air all night every night. No masks; no jammies. I keep my jeans clean. Go figure.

 

[THX1138]

We all had it twice here. Two years ago, and last year. The first time was bad for us all. The second time not so much, very mild. And during all of this and even now, none of us has gotten the common cold. Every now and then one of us might have a cold/COVID19 like symptoms, with a negative test, but give it a few hours and we're right as rain again as if nothing happened.

And it looks like the current OMICRON variants are as far as its mutating for now.

 

[Dave]

I'm feeling much better today - I think I must be Day 11 or 12 (if Day 4 is still the peak day) - but my wife doesn't look like she'll catch it now. She once travelled in a car with four others - three had it and didn't know, the other one got it later - but she still didn't catch it!

 

[THX1138]

@Dave Do you have the anti-viral treatment there in the UK, or do you just ride it out? Not that the anti-viral treatment makes you feel any better, but worse for a few days before you feel better. Just wondering.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It feels almost as if we are back in medieval timed with this virus/disease, and knowledge of how it spreads. Even now we are not entirely certain about centuries old epidemics such as the Black Death and the 'sweating sickness'; a lot of it is speculation, and there are many instances that defy current perceived wisdom.

How can you work/live/sleep close to someone, and not catch it? Then catch it several weeks later from some unknown source. That 's happened to me and my family, and defies all logic and our current knowledge of Covid.

There no doubt is media hype that helps exacerbate new and potentially dangerous infectious diseases, and I'm undecided as to whether this is a help or a hindrance. It certainly motivates governments into doing something about it, but a complete lack of knowledge, and significant amount of guesswork, can sometimes do more harm than good.

Imagine if every year the media hyped the latest variants of influenza, and recorded the death toll and number of hospital beds being taken up by patients? Would this help or hinder?

Hopefully one day scientific knowledge will get to the bottom of Covid; but I suspect that with so many variants and mutations, there will never be one answer that fits all

 

[Matteo]

I keep my jeans clean. Go figure.

Hmm...is that all there is to it?

Do you use a particular detergent?

Or wash cycle?

 

[Alex The G and T]

Hmm...is that all there is to it?

Do you use a particular detergent?

Or wash cycle?

Heh. It was supposed to be a riff on the line in the vid about having covid-proof genes.

I keep my genes clean? Maybe that's better; or Maybe it just wasn't a very good joke at all.

They can't all be Jems.

 

[Dave]

@Dave Do you have the anti-viral treatment there in the UK, or do you just ride it out? Not that the anti-viral treatment makes you feel any better, but worse for a few days before you feel better. Just wondering.

Yes, there are anti-virals available here. I don't know how effective they are, and I think they are given here only to very ill people with poor immune systems. I've just ridden it out with paracetamol, but then I didn't realise that I had it until the day I posted here, and that was many days later (I only felt really bad with aches and pains for one night.) I have some tiredness and congestion still, but that is more likely from hayfever and from some actual exercise that I've done. I haven't tested myself again as it should be long gone now. Mrs Dave still hasn't caught it.

From reading newspaper articles there are a whole selection of different new varieties going around right now, with so many different surface protein combinations that it would make it difficult to vaccinate for all of them (although a new vaccine has just been released) but that (for most people) none of them make you anything like as sick as the original virus did (and most people think they have a cold.)

 

[Montero]

I thought for immune suppressed people there were also being given antibodies directly.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Who's to say that previous illnesses we've had that we put down to 'colds' and hayfever. The media latched on to Covud and milked it for all that it was worth - and then some. Even now there are 'click bait' news stories warning about 'dangerous/deadly' new variants.

Some illnesses come and go naturally, some are eradicated with better hygiene, vaccines and other treatments, and some are here to stay. Hopefully Covid will simply become another of the many variations of whst we call 'colds'.

Back in the 16th Century, there was an illness called 'the Sweating Sickness'. Highly contagious, high mortality rate, and a quick death. You started feeling ill at breakfast, and were dead before tea time. Henry VIII was so worried about it, that he took his close family into isolation when it was in season. And then it disappeared, seemingly overnight without any intervention from anyone.

 

[Karapace]

You've heard of "Dances with Wolves?"
Meet "Sleeps with COVID."

My wife got it. I never caught it.
We sleep in the same bed and breathe the same air all night every night. No masks; no jammies. I keep my jeans clean. Go figure.

It is an erratic thing and not just COVID but other illnesses too. Prior to COVID my wife would get flu and I would not and visa verse. With COVID first my wife had it and I didn't (We'd both had all our jabs) same bed and everything. Then the following year I had it really bed but she didn't. Then last year she had it and it lasted a week while I had it and symptoms were gone in a day.