Covid - Does "super-immunity" exist?

[skimomma]

I know of a handful of people that have been exposed over and over and seem to be immune.  In one case, the person is very close to me and I know they get PCR tested 5 days after every known exposure and rapid tested twice a week for their job.  They have been exposed over and over and not gotten it.  They are fully vaccinated and boosted but had been significantly exposed before vaccines were available.  I would be especially interested to see any actual legit scientific studies/data on this.  But anecdata is also welcome.

Edited January 18, 2022 by skimomma

[Faith-manor]

I have know idea. But Typhoid Mary was immune to the disease though a carrier. So I think there could be people who have that kind of immune system and just don't get sick. 

[BusyMom5]

In one family I know, 4 siblings (ages 55+) have been exposed by their spouses- live together through Covid both before and after vax- and they never get it.  One is even a cancer survivor- she didn't get it!  

[Katy]

Yes, there are studies about this but I don’t think they’ve discovered the genes yet

[Ann.without.an.e]

I have been exposed again and again, direct contact within my family or close friends. Gosh, I hate to even say this out loud because I'll probably be sick tomorrow haha. I've never had covid. I had an antibodies test a few months ago and the doctor was super surprised that I had none, she says I def haven't had it. 

 

ETA, I also don't get the flu even though I don't get the flu shot. That being said, I have a crazy ramped up immune system. It hates me. I have a lot of auto immune sort of reactions to all sorts of stuff and a lot allergies as well. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[Malory]

A teenaged friend of my kid was exposed (along with his dad), one of them infected everyone in their very large family, but he himself never had a POS test and never had any symptoms. Later he got an antibody test and discovered he had antibodies.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Malory

[ktgrok]

I know I think this is true for all diseases. I have been exposed to strep probably hundreds of times and have never had strep throat. Knock on wood. And my entire family only once has strep throat been some thing my kids came down with. We seem to be pretty immune. Oddly, one of my kids has pandas from the only time he ever got strep. So that's super immunity may have had a Darkside.

Edited January 18, 2022 by ktgrok

[Ann.without.an.e]

8 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

I know I think this is true for all diseases. I have been exposed to strep probably hundreds of times and have never had strep throat. Knock on wood. And my entire family only once has strep throat been some thing my kids came down with. We seem to be pretty immune. Oddly, one of my kids has pandas from the only time he ever got strep. So that's super immunity may have had a Darkside.

Strep is strange, I feel like you either get it and battle it or you don't?  No one in my family has ever had it. But we have friends who struggle with it often. 

[Indigo Blue]

Strangely, I keep having these weird episodes where my voice gets really scratchy and hoarse. It’s been happening every 3 to 4 weeks and lasts for 1 or 2 days. Over and over. It just happened again yesterday. That was maybe the fifth time. It’s not allergies. It’s very odd. I don’t actually feel sick, though. I’ve never had Covid as far as I know. 

[Shelydon]

I don't know, but I am one of those people who doesn't get sick with viruses. No colds, no flu.  I have never vomited, I don't get stomach viruses even when the whole family is sick. When I was a kids, I got strep yearly.  I do have asthma and have to treat that. 

[ktgrok]

35 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Strangely, I keep having these weird episodes where my voice gets really scratchy and hoarse. It’s been happening every 3 to 4 weeks and lasts for 1 or 2 days. Over and over. It just happened again yesterday. That was maybe the fifth time. It’s not allergies. It’s very odd. I don’t actually feel sick, though. I’ve never had Covid as far as I know. 

reflux?

[skimomma]

52 minutes ago, Malory said:

A teenaged friend of my kid was exposed (along with his dad), one of them infected everyone in their very large family, but he himself never had a POS test and never had any symptoms. Later he got an antibody test and discovered he had antibodies.

I know that there are asymptomatic people who have it but I am wondering about people who just don't seem to catch it at all.  With most people, we would probably never know, but the one I am thinking of is tested so frequently for her job that it would be nearly impossible for her to have had it and missed it being caught.  

I too have been exposed, significantly, a few times, including a long, mask-free car ride with a positive member of my household, and did not get it.  I was tested that time (the car ride time) but don't have access to frequent testing so I very well could have had it some other time and not known.  So, I don't consider myself to have "super immunity."  But I was pondering on the person I know and wondering how on earth she has escaped it.  She does pick up other illnesses on a normal basis.  

[Ann.without.an.e]

2 hours ago, skimomma said:

I know that there are asymptomatic people who have it but I am wondering about people who just don't seem to catch it at all.  With most people, we would probably never know, but the one I am thinking of is tested so frequently for her job that it would be nearly impossible for her to have had it and missed it being caught.  

I too have been exposed, significantly, a few times, including a long, mask-free car ride with a positive member of my household, and did not get it.  I was tested that time (the car ride time) but don't have access to frequent testing so I very well could have had it some other time and not known.  So, I don't consider myself to have "super immunity."  But I was pondering on the person I know and wondering how on earth she has escaped it.  She does pick up other illnesses on a normal basis.  

 

Have you tested to see if you have antibodies? I did and I was negative, as in, I've never ever had it. DD had a case so mild that she would've never suspected Covid except her then fiance (now DH) tested positive so she tested as well. For her, it was lighter than a head cold and this was in winter of 2020. Just a thought. 

[GoodGrief3]

5 hours ago, skimomma said:

I know of a handful of people that have been exposed over and over and seem to be immune.

I hate to even comment on this because it seems like asking for trouble, but I think I am one of those people. I attribute some of my immunities to working in pediatric inpatient nursing for a few winters with infectious respiratory patients (unmasked face inside mist tents, holding babies during nebulizer treatments, etc.) I do feel an onset of illness at times, but it is always exceptionally short lived.

[Indigo Blue]

4 hours ago, ktgrok said:

reflux?

I don’t think so? It doesn’t feel like reflux. It’s a different type of voice change, if that makes any sense at all.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

My mom is not vaccinated and has had at least eight exposures that we know of.  She has never gotten sick.

I wish she’d get vaxxed, but I doubt she will until she actually catches Covid and believes she’s not actually immune. My kids spent all day Saturday at her house and then DD tested positive for Covid on Sunday, and all eight exposures have been similar, prolonged exposures.  It wouldn’t surprise me if some people are just genetically predisposed to not get it. 

[skimomma]

17 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

 

Have you tested to see if you have antibodies? I did and I was negative, as in, I've never ever had it. DD had a case so mild that she would've never suspected Covid except her then fiance (now DH) tested positive so she tested as well. For her, it was lighter than a head cold and this was in winter of 2020. Just a thought. 

I have not.  I probably will not be able to any time soon.  I am actually pretty locked down but assumed that I would for sure have gotten it after 6 hours in a car with a symptomatic, positive person pre-vaccine.  In that case I was PCR tested multiple times in the two weeks after but realize I may have had an asymptomatic case prior to that.  It was so long ago, I doubt an antibody test could explain that at this point.  I am certainly not going to act like I am super-immune in any case.  But when I look at the freak cases like in the OP, I figure there has to be naturally immune people.

[Drama Llama]

I feel like this story illustrates how little we understand how the virus is transmitted, and what prevents it:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/health/new-zealand-covid-facility-transmission/index.html

If I am reading this correctly, there were 5 people in the room. 

Person A had the virus.  Despite staying in a room basically 24/7 with B, C, D, and E they never passed the virus on.  

And yet B, despite living with A and not getting the virus, caught the virus from the person across the hall in a very brief transmission.  Was that a genetic difference in the virus between the two sources?  Or was there something about A that made them less contagious?  

C and D didn't get the virus from Person A, but then did from Person B.  Why was B's virus stronger?  Or was B coughing more?

And then E who wasn't vaccinated, didn't get it from either A or B.  Of course this was not omicron.  

If the door hadn't been open, I can see B and C and D assuming that they had some kind of super immunity, and maybe taking risks based on that in the future, or not getting vaccinated because they thought they were safe.  But they weren't.  

I'm sure that over time we'll find out more about who spreads and who doesn't, who contracts easily, and who doesn't, but at this time, I think assuming any kind of protection against future infection based on not contracting it in the past is unsafe and irresponsible, because we just don't know.  

[cuckoomamma]

They’ve published the results of preliminary studies that identify some of the genes associated with more and less likelihood of getting Covid. Early on it was linked to blood Type O being less likely and, now, Type A being more likely, but have gone on to identify specific genes. 

[wintermom]

31 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I feel like this story illustrates how little we understand how the virus is transmitted, and what prevents it:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/health/new-zealand-covid-facility-transmission/index.html

If I am reading this correctly, there were 5 people in the room. 

Person A had the virus.  Despite staying in a room basically 24/7 with B, C, D, and E they never passed the virus on.  

And yet B, despite living with A and not getting the virus, caught the virus from the person across the hall in a very brief transmission.  Was that a genetic difference in the virus between the two sources?  Or was there something about A that made them less contagious?  

C and D didn't get the virus from Person A, but then did from Person B.  Why was B's virus stronger?  Or was B coughing more?

And then E who wasn't vaccinated, didn't get it from either A or B.  Of course this was not omicron.  

If the door hadn't been open, I can see B and C and D assuming that they had some kind of super immunity, and maybe taking risks based on that in the future, or not getting vaccinated because they thought they were safe.  But they weren't.  

I'm sure that over time we'll find out more about who spreads and who doesn't, who contracts easily, and who doesn't, but at this time, I think assuming any kind of protection against future infection based on not contracting it in the past is unsafe and irresponsible, because we just don't know.  

Fascinating article. Sucks to be the traveller who is correctly isolating oneself and picks up the virus from across the hall. I wonder if they have hotel floors of positive folks and other floors of negative folks now that they know transmission is happening? Certainly implications for hospitals as well.

[Drama Llama]

46 minutes ago, wintermom said:

Fascinating article. Sucks to be the traveller who is correctly isolating oneself and picks up the virus from across the hall. I wonder if they have hotel floors of positive folks and other floors of negative folks now that they know transmission is happening? Certainly implications for hospitals as well.

My understanding is that they have separate facilities for people who are negative and quarantining and positive and isolating, but that family groups are kept together.  So, in this case, the family of 5 had one member who tested positive while they were in quarantine, and so were moved, as a group, to isolation where 3 other members contracted the virus.  

I also think they've put in place changes in the facilities so that rooms that are close together don't have doors open at the same time.  

[Farrar]

I read an article a few weeks ago that some researchers think that the vaccine + exposure or infection may be yielding a really high, really flexible for new variants level of immunity for many folks.

It definitely seems like some people are really susceptible and others are not. And like some people are supercarriers (that was a concept discussed a good bit really early in the pandemic, remember?) and others are not. That would be in line with lots of other viruses. So it doesn't seem farfetched at all.

[goldberry]

23 hours ago, ktgrok said:

I know I think this is true for all diseases. I have been exposed to strep probably hundreds of times and have never had strep throat. Knock on wood. And my entire family only once has strep throat been some thing my kids came down with. We seem to be pretty immune. Oddly, one of my kids has pandas from the only time he ever got strep. So that's super immunity may have had a Darkside.

I think I'm the same with strep.  DD had it over and over again as child.  She would sleep in my bed and cough in my face. 😳  Never had it. And yes I got tested and was not a carrier either.

[goldberry]

I wish we understood more about the people who are asymptomatic, even before or without the vaccine.  My mom, 88 at the time, smoker, dementia, under-nourished (because she won't eat) was positive before vaxxes were available and asymptomatic.  How in the world does that happen?  This virus is so crazy-freaky and unpredictable.

[Selkie]

23 hours ago, ktgrok said:

I know I think this is true for all diseases. I have been exposed to strep probably hundreds of times and have never had strep throat. Knock on wood. And my entire family only once has strep throat been some thing my kids came down with. We seem to be pretty immune. Oddly, one of my kids has pandas from the only time he ever got strep. So that's super immunity may have had a Darkside.

None of the five of us have ever had strep either. Even when my kids were in school and there were germs galore in their classrooms and all their friends had it, they never caught it.