Haven’t Had COVID Yet? Maybe Genetics Could Be the Key

could genetics also be at play. Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us for how scientists are looking into whether some are just naturally resistant to the virus. Thanks for joining us, Katherine, Thanks so much for having me. Well, we've seen the omicron sub variant b A five take

hold of the country. A lot of people are getting infected for the first time, a lot of people are getting reinfected, and we're looking at this incredibly shrinking number of people that have never gotten COVID this whole time that we've been going through the pandemic, and you know, there's a lot of questions what could be at play there. Some people, it could be a mix of luck, just really taking care of themselves, avoiding people and situation where

they could catch the virus. But others and scientists are really looking to see if there could be any genetic factors behind this. You know, we've known for a long time that even when we're dealing with other viruses like HIV, that some people are genetically resistant to some of that stuff. So they're looking to see hoping to see if they can find something related to coronavirus in that same sense. So Captain tell us a little bit about that. Yeah,

I mean, you've summed up really well. You know, this is an incredibly tantalizing idea. With the virus that is so transmissible and have seemingly infected just about everyone in the past couple of years, it is worth wondering, you know, what is going on with the people who haven't gotten it. Obviously, so many factors contribute to whether or not a person gets infected, and we do have to acknowledge here that a lot of people who think they haven't been infected

probably have. It's certainly not There may be people who never get this, not just because they haven't had the opportunity to because they can't get it. You know, there's a little bit of pressent for this, and if science just are able to find these people, it's not just a gus kind of things. It could really lead to new treatments, maybe even new vaccines, innovative ways to combat

the virus. And you know, scientists they're certainly hopeful because they've already identified factors that can make infections that people do get less severe. So genetics really can play a huge role in what happens when pathogens try to infect us. Now, we don't know how readibly available something like this would be,

how easy it would be to track it down. You had a note in your article of the fourteen hundred or so viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can cause diseases and humans, there's really only three that can be shut out by some genetic tweaks. So we're looking at HIV, neuro virus, and malaria parasite. But that still doesn't close out the possibility that we can find something that could hold off coronaviruses. And even in that, it doesn't have

to be a complete shut off. You know, even if we can find some partial protection would be really good when we're looking at future treatments and vaccines and all that stuff. You know, it doesn't have to be the full cell, And I think that's really important to think about because it hits this middle ground that I think

is quite important to think about it this way. If there is a wall that the virus needs to clear to infect you, the wall doesn't need to be infinitely high, just higher than the virus can jump in most circumstances, and as long as you are not getting exposed to say, enormous doses, that might be enough to protect you in a lot of situations. And it's actually really hard to tell the difference between some sort of genetic factor that

makes you difficult to infect it impossible to infect. But that also means that you know, those circus factors are going to be more common things that lower your risk of infecting rather than completely eliminating it. But that's important to keep in mind because no one should be walking around right now assuming that they're impervious. If this sort

of genetic resistance exists, it's probably really rare. It could come with other health cops, and it may not exist at all, and so people should really rely on what's more important, which is acquired in unity, like they can get through vaccines that can protect people just as well that can also build a wall that makes it really hard for the virus to jump over. But the hope

is that, you know, maybe we could find something. And you know, when we talk about examples like HIV, I mean, we just had a story of another person overcoming the HIV virus. Now this was done through stem cell transplants, but it was done in coordination with genes from you know, a person that was resistant to it. So if we can find that magic thing, then hopefully we can learn from that and really put that forward on COVID and

other coronaviruses. I think it's absolutely worthwhile to look into this and even if we don't find, you know, something equivalent to the story with HIV, even understanding what makes disease worse to help us make it better through interventions. So this kind of research, the importance that it really can't be discounted. And there is some studies I guess going on right now. I know there's teams of scientists that are coordinating with people that have not gotten COVID

so far and they're really looking into them. What kind of work is being done on that front. Yeah, and I think one of the big takeaways here it's just how hard this is. You know, you cited that statistics before about how you know, a lot of scientists are really only sure about three microbes that can be shut out by genetical registans out of the fourteen hundred plots that are known to be capable of infecting us in causing disease. That's not necessarily because it is only three,

but just because this is so difficult to prove. There are other candidates out there, but it's really hard to say, oh, this is a slam dunk. We definitely have some sort of genetic existance here. I think about how difficult it is to even figure out that someone has been infected by this coronavirus. You have to catch that infection in time, because i'mlike HIV, this is not typically a chronic infection.

You know, people do develop antibodies, even can try to look for those months later, but antibodies also fade, and you can't always look for the same types of antibodies and everyone because some antibodies can be elicited by both infections and vaccines, and researchers may try to look for things that stick around longer, like T cells another type of immune response, but those they're much harder to study. It's not just a test that you can do on

a stick at the drug store. And if people aren't paying super close attention to this and they don't have documentation that they probably weren't infected at the time, it's really difficult and scientists basically have to rule out were you in circumstances that led you to be heavily exposed but not get infected. Otherwise it would be everyone who has been you know, masking vigilantly, and that would create a lot of noise in this data. It's just a

really difficult connection to nail. Yeah, just for now, just an interesting look to see how genetics could play a factor in this. I was part of that no COVID clever quite some time and got me a few months ago, So so I'm out. You know, you can't count me in then anymore. But always looking to see what's developing their Katherine wu staff writer at The Atlantic, Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks very much for having me. I'm Oscar Ramors and this has been reopening America. Don't

forget effort today's big news stories. You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday, so all uson I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast,