STUDY FINDS
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom — From mild cases to severe infections, hundreds of millions of people worldwide have had COVID-19 over the last four years. In the United States alone, the World Health Organization notes that one in three people have had a documented case of COVID. Despite the pandemic’s global reach, plenty of people have never gotten sick throughout this entire health crisis. Now, a new study may have finally discovered what keeps certain people from contracting this virus.
In an extraordinary leap forward in medicine, scientists have uncovered crucial immune responses that explain why some people exposed to SARS-CoV-2 manage to avoid developing the infection. This groundbreaking research, detailed in the journal Nature, used cutting-edge technology to map out immune dynamics in unprecedented detail, providing new insights that could lead to more effective prevention strategies.
Specifically, a team from the United Kingdom observed a never-seen-before immune response in people who immediately cleared the virus from their system without getting sick. Having higher levels of a gene called HLA-DQA2 before encountering SARS-CoV-2 protected these individuals from infections.
