WEBVTT - Can Some Be ‘Super Immune’ to Covid?

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<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, April six. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>Are some people super immune to COVID? There are many

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<v Speaker 1>who have had COVID multiple times, while others have avoided

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<v Speaker 1>infection altogether. Researchers are currently studying healthcare workers whose bodies

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<v Speaker 1>fought off infection but never created specific anybody's for it.

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<v Speaker 1>The hope is that understanding what kept them from getting

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<v Speaker 1>sick could lead to better vaccines. Madison Mueller, health reporter

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<v Speaker 1>at Bloomberg News, joins us for more. Thanks for joining us, Madison,

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for having me after Well, let's talk about this

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<v Speaker 1>interesting notion regarding COVID nineteen. Are some people super immune

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<v Speaker 1>to this? You know, you start off your story talking

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<v Speaker 1>about how you've had COVID twice. Your sister managed to

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<v Speaker 1>hold off not getting it until just last week. I

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<v Speaker 1>myself have not had COVID nineteen throughout this whole pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>Knock on wood, Hopefully it doesn't come for me soon.

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<v Speaker 1>But you know, there's a lot of researchers, scientists looking

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<v Speaker 1>at people that that have fared well, have not gotten it,

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<v Speaker 1>and seeing if there's something in their system that can

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<v Speaker 1>help them avoid it even more, and obviously, looking towards

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<v Speaker 1>vaccines and things like that, it could really help inform

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<v Speaker 1>what we're doing on that side of things. So Madison,

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<v Speaker 1>tell us a little bit more about it. Yeah, So

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<v Speaker 1>I was really surprised to see the data that over

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<v Speaker 1>fifty of the United States still hasn't had COVID. That

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<v Speaker 1>was shocking to me as someone who's had it twice

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, I have friends and family that haven't

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<v Speaker 1>had it, but still that seems like a large number

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<v Speaker 1>of people. But scientists in the UK started looking into

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<v Speaker 1>this in the early stages of the pandemic, so prior

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<v Speaker 1>to vaccines, they were looking at a cohort of health

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<v Speaker 1>care workers in the UK, and we're looking at natural immunity.

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<v Speaker 1>So these people, these super immune people in in some

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<v Speaker 1>rare instances, seem to have a an immune response that's

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<v Speaker 1>better than the average person, and their bodies are able

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<v Speaker 1>to actually fight off the virus before it has sting

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<v Speaker 1>positive for it, which is really interesting and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>some of the data some of these studies can actually improve,

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<v Speaker 1>like you said, our knowledge of of COVID in general

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<v Speaker 1>and potentially be applied to therapeutics and vaccines down the road. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it was pretty interesting what was happening with those healthcare workers.

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<v Speaker 1>As you mentioned, they were able to fight off the

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<v Speaker 1>virus before testing positive or even developing the antibodies to it.

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<v Speaker 1>And the thought process was as well, COVID nineteen is

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<v Speaker 1>a coronavirus. There are other coronaviruses that we've been exposed

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<v Speaker 1>to for our entirety of our lives, you know, things

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<v Speaker 1>that cause it common cold and other things, and they

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<v Speaker 1>do share some some commonality. So maybe because their body

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<v Speaker 1>was at deept to fighting that off, they were able

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<v Speaker 1>to fight off COVID nineteen. Yeah, that's exactly right. So

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<v Speaker 1>T cells, we all have them, it's they're a critical

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<v Speaker 1>part of our immune response, and in these healthcare workers

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<v Speaker 1>exposure to prior coronaviruses, So these coronavirus seasonal coronavirus to

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<v Speaker 1>cause cold like symptoms, and the thought processes that these

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<v Speaker 1>healthcare workers, their prior exposure had primed their T cells

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<v Speaker 1>to recognize this genetic part of the of COVID that

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<v Speaker 1>is the same across coronaviruses, and to then be able

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<v Speaker 1>to have an immune response and effective immune response without

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<v Speaker 1>actually creating specific antibodies to fight off the virus, which

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<v Speaker 1>is cool and really interesting. And yeah, so it was

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<v Speaker 1>definitely definitely I think and new were finding at the time.

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<v Speaker 1>And yeah, right, and part of it too, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>you go on to explain the article that you know,

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<v Speaker 1>right now, when we're getting these covid vaccines or we're

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<v Speaker 1>getting infected naturally with it and we're fighting it off,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the body is targeting the spike protein, and

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<v Speaker 1>what these healthcare workers were doing was kind of targeting

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<v Speaker 1>more the inside machinery of the virus instead of just

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<v Speaker 1>the spike protein. That's why they might have been more

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<v Speaker 1>adepti fighting it off. And that's kind of what a

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<v Speaker 1>scientists are looking for trying to understand. So when we

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<v Speaker 1>do talk about future vaccine development or what a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of people are really hoping for is some you know

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<v Speaker 1>of some kind of universal coronavirus vaccine that will target

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<v Speaker 1>multiple ones at the same time. That's really what's going

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<v Speaker 1>to get us a leg up on these types of viruses, right. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so that internal machinery stays the same and spike proteins,

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<v Speaker 1>as we know, that's something that easily mutates and can

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<v Speaker 1>cause some issues for vaccine makers and for people trying

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<v Speaker 1>to create therapeutics to fight the virus. So that's why

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<v Speaker 1>this study is so significant, because they found an element

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<v Speaker 1>of the coronavirus that you know, can be recognized and

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<v Speaker 1>because it doesn't change, and so that could be something

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<v Speaker 1>that's really effective in the future, and it's something that

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<v Speaker 1>some labs, some researchers are looking into now. And yeah, well,

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<v Speaker 1>it'll be interesting to see if some people truly are

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<v Speaker 1>super immune to this and really just are able to

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<v Speaker 1>fight it off and don't get it, or or if

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<v Speaker 1>maybe some people are just lucky, maybe they've they've taken

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<v Speaker 1>all the proper precautions and have really just avoided it

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<v Speaker 1>just well enough. But just an interesting notion to think about.

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<v Speaker 1>Madison Mueller, health reporter at Bloomberg News, thank you very

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<v Speaker 1>much for joining us. Thank you. I'm Oscar Ramires and

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<v Speaker 1>this has been reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's

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<v Speaker 1>Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, So follow us

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