So you haven’t yet caught COVID. Does that make you a superdodger? : Goats and Soda : NPR
▻https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/09/07/1121599445/so-you-havent-caught-covid-yet-does-that-mean-youre-a-superdodger
This summer, Hollenbach and her colleagues demonstrated that, with a specific mutation in HLA, some people have T cells that are already pre-programmed to recognize and fight off SARS-CoV-2. So there’s no delay in generating COVID-specfic weaponry. It’s already there.
“Your immune response and these T cells fire up much more quickly [than in a person without the HLA mutation],” Hollenbach says. “So for lack of a better term, you basically nuke the infection before you even start to have symptoms.”
But here’s the kicker. For the HLA mutation to work (and for you to have these pre-armed T cells), you first had to have been infected with another coronavirus.
“Most of us have been exposed to some common cold coronavirus at some point in life,” she explains. And we all generate T cells to fight off these colds. But if you also have this mutation in your HLA, Hollenbach says, then just by mere luck, these T cells you make can also fight off SARS-CoV-2.
“It’s definitely luck,” she says. “But, you know, this mutation is quite common. We estimate that maybe 1 in 10 people have it. And in people who are asymptomatic, that rises to 1 in 5.”