Super Spreaders v. Super Resisters
A new study sheds light on why some people never got infected with human SARS-CoV-2
In March of 2020, I snuggled on the couch and ate a bowl of popcorn with a family member who tested positive for COVID a few days later. During the “pandemic,” I was also invited to an outdoor dance party, after which at least half a dozen guests got sick with COVID.
For four years now the media’s fear-mongering and shame-blame campaigns have been accusing the unvaccinated of being “super spreaders.”
(Never mind that a 2023 peer-reviewed study of prisoners in California found that those who were not vaccinated had lower rates of the disease.)
But what about the super resisters?
Super resisters are people like Hugh Potter of Pickering, Ontario whose wife got very ill from COVID but who never even had a sniffle, according to CBC News. People like my friend Amanda whose husband was feverish and ill for two weeks. Even though they slept together every night, Amanda never got sick.
Super resisters are those of us who were exposed to COVID—often repeatedly—but manage to not get infected.
Last week a team of over 40 researchers published a fascinating study in the scientific journal Nature, “Human SARS-CoV-2 challenge uncovers local and systemic response dynamics” to try to parse out the difference between people who succumb to COVID infections and those who resist.
Sixteen (16) participants
For this study, sixteen people agreed to be voluntarily exposed to a very low-dose of the original form of SARS-CoV-2 via their noses.
They were given a wild-type pre-Alpha SARS-CoV-2 challenge virus (SARS-CoV-2/human/GBR/484861/2020) at dose 10 TCID50 on day 0 of the study.
A volume of 100 µl per naris was pipetted between both nostrils, according to the article.
Then the participants were required to remain lying down face up for 10 minutes after being inoculated, followed by 20 minutes in a sitting position wearing a nose clip.
These volunteers were healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 30. Before the study, none had been vaccinated and none had any known or quantifiable previous infection or exposure to the virus.
Analyzing the cellular response
The scientists then analyzed the cellular responses of the participants after exposure, looking at their blood work and also examining the cells in their nasopharynx.
The nasopharynx is the top of your throat and it connects your nose to your respiratory system.
They did this in order to decipher individual antiviral responses against SARS-CoV-2.
Of the 16 participants:
Six (6) got infected and got sick.
Three (3) got infected but cleared the virus without showing any disease symptoms.
Seven (7) never tested positive for COVID.
In the words of the researchers, they “remained PCR-negative throughout the quarantine period, which indicated that these individuals successfully prevented the onset of a sustained or transient infection.”
In other words, these seven people were super resisters. Their immune systems prevented any SARS infection from entering their bodies.
So what about those super resisters?
The scientists noted saw high levels of activity in a gene called HLA-DQA2 among the super resisters.
Their working hypothesis—if I am understanding the research correctly—is that this gene helps the immune system identify potentially harmful viruses and bacteria so the body can quickly destroy them.
Timing also mattered.
When the researchers looked biochemically at the study participants who got sick, they found that it took their immune systems longer to concentrate immune efforts in the nasal linings in their noses.
In direct contrast, it was the participants whose bodies mounted the fastest immune responses who managed to either resist the virus altogether or clear the virus without having any symptoms.
Researchers have told the media that they may be able to use these findings to develop new vaccines and new vaccine technology.
I guess there’s no research money available to study how to help people support their immune systems naturally and upregulate the HLA-DQA2 gene without Big Pharma’s Big Profits?
About the author:
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is a highly acclaimed science journalist and sought-after speaker. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on the cover of Smithsonian magazine. The author/co-author/editor/co-editor of eight non-fiction books (3 of which have won awards), she earned her B.A. from Cornell University, her M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and her Ph.D. from Emory University. Invite her to speak at your event and learn more about her work at her website, www.JenniferMargulis.net.
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For those who still wonder if there could be some common factors that make people more resistant to covid and other infections I have collected a few (100+) published papers that should make anyone who is naive to the concept at least consider the potential benefits of Vitamin-D3 supplementation.
https://cholecalciferol.miraheze.org/wiki/DOI
If you think you might indeed be needing some (50-90% of urban westerners are badly deficient.) then I have a simple table based on the research I did that could suggest a starting dose for you. Lots of linked research there too. The chart has two versions offering dosing units of ug or IU.
https://cholecalciferol.miraheze.org/wiki/Kalle_Pihlajasaari
Good study. It was known without scientific proof that those of us who have strong immune responses and take care of ourselves were less likely to get covid because we're simply less likely to get most cold-like viruses. Of course, the hysterical couldn't accept that.
I personally had covid twice. Once, it was before you could test for antibodies. It was the worst cold of my life for about four days. I wasn't sure it was covid, but I tested for antibodies a few months later and that showed I'd been exposed and developed some resistence. Then I had the delta version and that was bad -- not hospital bad, but definitely like no other sickness I'd ever had. I ran a 102' fever for a week and finally broke down to get monoclonal antibodies.
I have yet to catch any other cold and it's been almost three years. Not sniffle one. I was recently tested for covid antibodies and I still have them and it would appear they're aggressive enough to take on other forms of the cold, which is what the endemic version of covid really is. That doesn't mean I'll never catch other cold, but I'm pretty sure it won't be deadly for me...mainly because covid was never deadly unless you were really old or really obese or had some other comorbidity that made you susceptable to death to begin with.