Although it seems as if everyone, especially now with the new, highly transmissible BA.2 virus, has gotten COVID-19, some portions of the population haven’t.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
These select few have yet to contract the virus, and researchers think that those people might help unravel some of the mysterious of the virus itself.
A possible place to start may be examining the number of those who haven’t yet been infected working in the medical field, where transmission might be more likely.
"Exposure in the hospital is on the one hand much stronger because we're working with people who have the virus, but on the other hand we're wearing protective equipment, which really is remarkable effective in preventing infection," said Dr. Catherine Blish, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at Stanford University on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" on Monday with Holly Quan and Jason Brooks.
For those who haven't had COVID-19 and are just around people who've had COVID-19 and haven't worn protective gear, like N-95 masks, a possible explanation is that "virus transmission is not a 100% event," said Blish. "In fact, for all viruses, there is a great chance our body fights it off before we become infected."
The virus particle needs to come into contact with the right cell at the right time in order for infection to happen. "If you think about it as a soccer game, it’s a very low-scoring game," she said.
So far, research into houses that have at least one person infected with the virus shows that there’s only about a 30% attack rate, she said.
"What that tells is that presumably if you’re sharing a house with someone who's infected, that’s a lot of shots on goal and only one in three people get infected," said Blish.
Some of it is just pure luck, she said and maybe these people just have a better early immune response that stops the virus before it can replicate.
These barriers are pretty standard. One of the first, is of course, mucus.
"Secreting mucus is actually very protective from a lot of viruses because it's sticky and it gloms on the virus and you can get rid of it," she said.
After mucus, there are cells inside the nose and mouth that naturally sweep any invaders out of those airways.
Our body also produces chemicals that inhibit the virus, said Blish. "And then finally, our intercellular barriers," she said. "If a virus gets into one cell, it causes that cell to sense that something is wrong and releases a stress response."
This sends out a message to other cells alerting them to the virus, and they ramp up their antiviral response in anticipation.
Researchers are still working to understand why some people don't seem to get infected with COVID-19 while others do, and sometimes more than once.
LISTEN to KCBS Radio
FAVORITE KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
