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More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans have some immunity against the virus — either by vaccination or infection, or a combination of both. But there have been some rare cases in which certain unvaccinated people seem to have been able to dodge the virus despite being repeatedly exposed to it. This has raised the question of whether it is possible that some people are simply immune or resistant to COVID-19 without having had the virus or a vaccine. Yahoo News spoke with three experts about whether such resistance to COVID-19 exists and how it would work.

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Most Americans have some immunity against the COVID-19 virus, either by vaccination or a combination of both. Some unvaccinated people seem to have been able to dodge the virus despite being exposed to it many times. The question of whether some people are immune or resistant to COVID-19 without having had a vaccine has been raised.

Scientists are trying to understand if there is a resistance to COVID-19. More than 990,000 American lives have been lost to the disease, and researchers say studying these cases could help develop new vaccines and therapies.

It has been difficult to talk about it publicly because you say something and then people go and do something else.

Crotty said that he and other experts have been cautious about discussing this topic because there are no clear answers yet.

It's a dangerous proposition if you think something you don't know is dangerous. Most of us have tried to be careful.

Crotty said that some people who have not gotten COVID have been lucky. It's possible that their behaviors, like wearing a mask or avoiding certain situations that could put them at risk of contracting the disease, kept them protected.

Unless it's a household member who we got evidence from, we don't know. A lot of cases are not obvious. She said that you don't know that you have it because you aren't sick.

There are two possible explanations as to why some people are more resistant to the COVID-19 than others. Some people may be able to clear the virus quickly due to their immunity to other coronaviruses like the one that causes the common cold.

About 30% of all cold infections are coronaviruses, which are among more than 200 types of common cold viruses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most people get coronaviruses at some point in their lives.

The main idea is that certain people will make T-cell responses to certain coronaviruses that may provide a degree of protection that other people don't.

T cells are part of the immune system and help us fight infections. T cells act as another line of defense when a virus enters the body, by preventing it from replicating and causing severe disease. Scientists call these T cells that seem to be effective against coronaviruses cross-reactive.

In May 2020 Crotty and his colleagues published a study on this topic. The scientists compared the blood samples from people who had been exposed to the virus with the blood samples from people who had never been exposed.

In approximately 50% of people, cross-reactive T cells exist and have been shown to do so by laboratories around the world.

A study of health care workers in England was published in November of last year. The group of U.K. health care workers who were exposed to the virus but didn't develop COVID-19 were evaluated. Researchers found that the presence of cross-reactive memory T cells among some of the participants contributed to the rapid clearance of the coronaviruses.

The professor said that scientists need to continue to study it. He and his team are determined to find answers and enroll people who have never been exposed and have never beenvaccinated, so that they can be monitored over time.

He said that these T-cells response studies will be important in the development of new COVID-19 vaccines. Different groups of scientists are working on shots for T cells.

Our current vaccines are designed to teach B cells, a type of white blood cell, how to recognize and bind to the virus's surface, which is the part of the virus that helps it attach to cells. The cell can be attacked by the virus if there are enough antibodies present. The main challenge has been that the coronaviruses spikeProtein is frequently changed, which gives it an advantage because it can evade any antibodies that no longer recognize it.

T-cell vaccines are thought to be more effective because they are able to recognize other parts of the virus that are not part of the spike. Studies have shown that after a vaccine is administered, the immune system will not respond as well to severe disease.

Some people may have innate immunity, meaning that they have genetic factors that protect them from an infectious disease.

Sanjana is an assistant professor of biology at New York University and a core faculty member at the New York Genome Center. One place of interest that may provide some answers is the entry mechanism of the virus, which allows it to enter human cells and cause disease.

Sanjana says that it will be harder for the virus to get in because of the changes in the ACE2 receptor. The resistance to HIV has been demonstrated due to these types of genes.

We know that there is an entry receptor similar to the one that we have identified for the disease, but it is not the same as the one we have identified for the disease.

Sanjana said that scientists have been looking at other genetic variations across the human genome.

We don't know which of the 20,000 genes in the human genome affects which cells in our airway or lungs, which we think is the route of entry for the disease.

A collaborative project called the COVID Human Genetic Effort has been studying thousands of people across different countries, looking for genetic variations that might reveal why some people never get COVID-19, as well as why certain people get so sick while others don't.

Sanjana said the studies are important for the development of the next generation of drugs.

Most of the drugs that we have work on the virus. The virus is targeted by them. He said that they target the viral genes.

The cover photo was taken by MR.Cole.

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