Why does COVID-19 strike some and not others? Fauci sees an answer in new study

[LiberalArkie]

AUGUST 11, 2020 07:00 AM


WASHINGTON
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said a new study could explain the extraordinary range that people experience with the novel coronavirus, from having no symptoms at all or a mild case to hospitalization or death.

The discovery, which found potential signs of immunity in people who had previously been exposed to other types of coronavirus, could also expand the hunt for a long-lasting COVID-19 vaccine.

Fauci and other scientists said the study published in Science this month held promising findings for understanding why some individuals exposed to COVID-19 for the first time have a modest reaction to the virus.

The study found that the immune systems of roughly half of its subjects appeared to remember past exposure to other, prevalent coronaviruses, including variants of the common cold, equipping them to respond more quickly to a COVID-19 infection once it appeared.

The findings also offer new insights that could help in developing a vaccine by looking at T cells which help fight the virus.

Snip

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/coronavirus/article244852012.html#storylink=cpy

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Interesting Article

Nice find!

[SheltieLover]

2. K&R!

Ty!

[Wounded Bear]

3. K & R...for visibility...nt

[Mossfern]

4. Interesting news

and I hope this will help to further with the mystery of the Covid-19 virus.
Unfortunately for me, I honestly can't remember the last time I had a cold.

[Control-Z]

9. I hadn't had a cold or the flu for something like 20 years.

I got covid. It was mild but with pneumonia. My husband had a milder case without pneumonia, we believe.

I still know little about Covid-19.

[Blue_true]

51. I have minor colds constantly.

When I work out, if I don’t put on a warmer when cooling down, I get a cold. Interestingly, if I am dry, I could stand in freezing cold for a long time and have no reaction cold-wise.

[Yavin4]

5. We're filling in our gaps in knowledge about the virus which is the best take away from this article

If we had better national leadership and greater international coordination, our knowledge gaps will fill faster.

[MineralMan]

6. That has been my thought all along, once I heard about asymptomatic people.

Both my wife and I had a very bad cold with similar symptoms as described for COVID-19 back in October of 2019. Dry, nonproductive cough, slight fever, and few if any congestive symptoms common with typical colds. I suspect we had a coronavirus infection at that time. We know others who experienced similar colds around the same time. None have developed COVID-19 symptoms so far.

Purely anecdotal information, but it could be related to what that study is showing.

Nevertheless, we are still following all of the precautions.

[obamanut2012]

12. Same, except the first week of January is when it hit me

My father and sister (none of us live together) had the same thing within the same basic fortnight time period.

Like you, it's provocative, and makes me think we all had it.

[11cents]

14. I had something quite similar, late November into early December

Last edited Tue Aug 11, 2020, 03:37 PM - Edit history (1)

I never felt seriously ill, but it was probably 3 weeks before I felt entirely over it. An extremely persistent, sometimes uncontrollable dry cough, but little upper respiratory congestion. I didn't have difficulty breathing, but there was a ... miasmic feeling in my chest, like I was carrying around a cloud in my lungs. No fever in my case. I've been hoping that it was some kind of coronavirus that might confer some protection.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. Seems plausible there could have been a genetic variant floating around the globe....

prior to the big bad one erupting. I've read reports here on DU of others suffering from a similar illness.

Would be interesting to know if folks like you are carrying some unique antibodies around from that infection. Perhaps science could learn something from it.

KY

[11cents]

34. I'm actually part of a study run by UC Berkeley School of Health...

... where we're sent testing kits every 6 to 8 weeks; the samples are analyzed for both current infection and (after the first test) antibodies. They're looking for non-symptomatic people who either have or had had the virus. I won't get a result that includes antibodies for another month, though.

[LymphocyteLover]

27. that was more likely the flu

the common cold coronaviruses that generate this cross reacting immunity generally just cause a mild cold-like disease

[MineralMan]

40. Nope. Wasn't the flu. I recognize the flu.

As my wife said, "This is a weird cold."

[a la izquierda]

37. I was sicker than I've been in decades in Jan.

High fever, really odd cough that lingered for weeks, could barely function for a week. But in June I took an antibody test and it was negative. So not Covid...but something oddly close I imagine. I’d also recently returned from both London and NYC when I got ill.

I get strep EVERY year, and never get a fever. I’ve not had the flu as an adult (I get the flu jab yearly). Whatever this was, it was weird as hell.

[DeminPennswoods]

52. H3N2 flu also comes with a dry cough

That variant was around during this flu season.

[MFGsunny]

7. K & R for visibility n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. I'm saved! I'm the world's biggest cold magnet.

Cold viruses love me. I get a couple of doozies every winter. Maybe I'll go look for another one.

[IronLionZion]

36. Same here

which initially gave me a lot of anxiety thinking that I have a weak immune system and won't stand a chance against this one. But I hope it means I have some antibody protection.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

38. I hope so too. There should be some up-side from getting a cold or two

every winter, besides providing a useful excuse not to go to some tiresome holiday gathering with in-laws.

[Maru Kitteh]

10. Could also explain why more men

become ill, women do the lion’s share of child care, hence exposed to more viruses.

[IronLionZion]

30. There are reasons why some viruses affect men harder than women

people joke about the man cold, but there is some science behind it. And it probably is related to child care somehow

[w0nderer]

11. K & R N/T

[RainCaster]

13. I am one who gets the flu vaccine every fall. Could that help?

It may offer a similar set of AV features, because of the wide variety of flu strains my body has seen.

[AllyCat]

22. I don't think so. The flu vaccine is not variants of

any type of coronavirus. It is sone type of cold that is caused by a coronavirus and that is the immunity they are seeing. I haven’t had a cold in 6 years. I worry that I would have no immunity at all to COVID-19.

[C Moon]

32. I catch colds once every 5 years or so, but last year I caught three colds. :/

[Blue_true]

50. Well, according to theories some are following, you may be the last one standing.

[LymphocyteLover]

24. No. Thats a very different virus and is unlikely to have any cross-reactivity

[Tommymac]

15. He Blinded Me With Science... again!

Bravo Dr. Fauci. Keep up the good work as long as you are able to.

[peggysue2]

16. It may turn out that the illness my entire family came down with--

shortly after Christmas--was a good thing. We had many of the Covid-19 symptoms--the dry, lingering cough; the fatigue and body aches; sweats and chills; headache and complete loss of appetite. It took me 2 1/2 weeks to feel human after the initial symptoms set in. As for the cough? That lingered for a good month.

If that's the case, we can thank our 7-year old step-grand son. He coughed and sputtered all over the house. For the adults, we dropped like dominoes, one after the other, all of us sick before the New Year rang in.

Out of the mouths of babes. LOL.

[RKP5637]

17. Interesting article, thanks for posting!!!! n/t

[AlexSFCA]

18. does that explain why cold countries have much lower death rates?

the populace is more immune to coronaviruses?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

33. More likely it's because they don't have stupid governments,

with the exception of Sweden, which is also cold, but they got slammed pretty hard because their head epidemiologist turned out to be wrong about almost everything.

[yaesu]

19. The last time I had a cold was back in 2016, hope my immune system has a long memory. nt

[AllyCat]

23. Me too! Has been 6 years

[forthemiddle]

21. I read medical records for a living

I am a Professional coder/ auditor, and I have seen the charts of multiple patients that have been hospitalized with Covid 19 (so only the sickest ones that need hospitalization). So far they fall into two main categories, the elderly, and the morbidly obese.

The elderly patients are the obvious ones, but the under 65 crowd is what’s surprising me. With only two exceptions they have all been morbidly obese (some with diabetes, some with hypertension, some both). The two exceptions were alcoholics that came in as withdrawal patients that were found to have Covid. Both of those patients decompensated quickly.

I do not claim to have any medical training ( outside reading charts every day), and there has been no double blind studies, but all I know anecdotally is as far as hospitalization in my employers local, if your not older, please think about losing weight, and changing your lifestyle because it may save your life.

[CaptainTruth]

39. Thank you for the info!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

44. I have lost 50 pounds in the space of a year.

Maybe on some level my body knew the weight combined with diabeties and high blood pressure would become deadly..

The weight came off pretty easy with some lifestyle changes.

Now I am almost at my ideal weight.

[forthemiddle]

55. Congratulations!

Keep up the good work.
About 6 years ago I lost 60 pounds, but it is so hard to keep it off the older I get. I have gained back about 30 of it, but I have been maintaining that.
Keep Safe!

[LymphocyteLover]

25. Super important work. I'm actually collaborating with some doctors to do very similar studies

It would be fascinating if this explained the huge difference in susceptibility among different people. I doubt it's the only explanation and we know other factors like diabetes and lung problems are also factors that are separate issues.

[ananda]

26. I've been wondering about this.

I had the cold from hell a year and a half ago.

Then in February I had some kind of violent
nasal/histamine event that I medicated for
symptoms. The next day I felt as though I
was getting sick and then it suddenly just
went away.

I medicated for a few more days, but it was
gone.

That was a very weird experience.

[Disaffected]

28. Hmm, interesting,

My take on it is that I used to get v bad colds quite frequently when I was younger but have not had a bad cold now for several decades (only the occasional mild case of sniffles). So then, does that mean I have developed strong resistance to Corona type viruses, including possibly Covid-19??

May be only wishful thinking but......

[IronLionZion]

29. Most colds are rhinoviruses, some might be coronaviruses

I've had a lot of colds in my life so hope I have some antibodies

[Blue_true]

49. There are Coronavirus cold pathogens. The paper speculated on them. nt

[IronLionZion]

56. That's good to know nt

[OneGrassRoot]

31. Hope that means my daughter's bout with H1N1...

proves helpful now. That was ROUGH. Nearly hospitalized; daily trips to urgent care for fluids. Three-week convalescence. And she was 20.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

35. H1N1 is an orthomyxovirus, not a coronavirus.

I don't know if immunity to one helps with the other.

[Blue_true]

48. Different species of virus.

I believe that H1N1 is a novel Norovirus. SARS-COV-2 belongs to the Coronavirus species or genus (don’t know which term applies, if either do). So, in theory, unless that trigger the same T-Cells to form, having one doesn’t make a person immune to the other. There are several common cold coronaviruses that are cousins of SARS-COV-2 and are in the same family. The paper dealt with the possibility that some people develop a stout response to a common cold Coronaviruses and maybe that could be used against their cousin, SARS-COV-2.

[OneGrassRoot]

54. Ah, ok. Thanks! n/t

[Siwsan]

41. I had a cold at the same time it turns out my brother was contagious with Covid-19

He was over to my house a couple of times - the last time he was going to help me buy water 40 lb bags of softener salt, but I made him drive separately to the store because something just told me that being in a car with him might not be a good idea. A few days later he was flattened with all of the symptoms. It took him several weeks to feel semi-functional and longer still to feel recovered.

I sniffled through my cold and recovered in a little over a week. Nothing at all unusual about my cold.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

42. I think it really comes down to the fact that every individual has their own

individual, specific immune system. Which is complicated by things like smoking, diabetes, obesity, living in a city with a lot of air pollution, how good your diet is, and so on.

I happen to have an amazing immune system. I've had perhaps three colds in the last decade. Last got flu more than forty years ago. After an early childhood of getting sick a lot, I simply never get sick any more. Not that I'm willing to run a full-on challenge of my immune system with this virus, but I wouldn't be surprised if I were one of those who gets no symptoms.

Again, because this is a novel virus to our species, we don't have a collective, underlying response to it. Which is why there are so many different sets of symptoms ranging from none at all to dying.

There's a part of me that thinks this will not go away until essentially every single person on the planet has been exposed and either recovers or dies.

[Blue_true]

47. In the engineering world, we use a term called "confounding factor(s)".

The upshot is that a confounding factor is something that we don’t know about or whose impact we have not analyzed properly. You mentioned diet, I believe that looms massively large in determining why some people have no symptoms and are fine while other people of the same age and apparent health die. There are cultural variances with diet, some groups don’t eat certain foods, or eat those foods prepared in certain ways, while other cultural groups eat varying amounts of foods that can act as triggers for a specific outcome.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

53. I didn't know that term, but it sounds spot on.

[LAS14]

43. Does this address the age disparity at all? (Not up to reading the whole article.) nt

[Blue_true]

46. I read the entire article. It discussed the possibility that coronaviruses that cause common colds,

and are cousins of SARS-COV-2 triggered an anti-body and T-Cell response in some people, some of the T-Cells were still around at a low level. Some blood samples didn’t have any signs of antibodies or T-Cells, so that could imply that response to the cold coronaviruses varied.

The theory seems to be that cold coronaviruses triggering an immune response could shed light on how to solve SARS-COV-2. The problem is the discovery of the antibodies and T-Cells get us to the same problem that we have with SARS-COV-2, why does it make some people deadly ill and doesn’t seem to affect others.

[Blue_true]

45. I am not a Medical scientist.

But, the study talks about corona viruses that cause the common cold. Anyone older than 6 months old should have been exposed to cold causing corona viruses many times over their life. So how can a subset of people have T-Cells and antibodies and others in the very same countries and regions of countries not have them?