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Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:27 PM

Mike 03 (15,903 posts)

Question: Could some peoples' immune systems be recognizing COVID-19?

You know these reports of people who are asymptomatic or report a 'slight cold"?

What accounts for the extreme differences among immune response, between a healthy 30 year old who gets severe pneumonia and someone who experiences few or no symptoms?

Is it possible that some people's' immune systems do recognize this virus and defeat it immediately, or don't even recognize it as a threat?

When a person has no symptoms, does that mean their immune system isn't even fighting it? Or does it mean their immune system fought it off so quickly that it never even rose to the level of becoming symptomatic?

Could we find out there are things some people (especially maybe younger people) have done that confer protection, like maybe having been exposed to animals, pets, or been exposed to certain viruses similar to this one in nature?

I know we can't know the answers for sure, but this aspect of the virus is interesting. I wish I knew more about how viruses work. Bats have thousands of viruses but don't get sick from them. Could some people who are not getting very sick already have had this virus, so it's not even perceived as an enemy?

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20 replies	Author	Time	Post
Question: Could some peoples' immune systems be recognizing COVID-19? (Original post)	Mike 03	Mar 2020	OP
I've wondered the same.	bamagal62	Mar 2020	#1
I heard blood type O had a better immunity to it.	rainy	Mar 2020	#2
I saw that too. Very intriguing. nt	Mike 03	Mar 2020	#3
Woo Hoo!!!!!	WyattKansas	Mar 2020	#5
I'm O neg.	A HERETIC I AM	Mar 2020	#12
I'm O positive	rainy	Mar 2020	#18
Cheers!	A HERETIC I AM	Mar 2020	#19
after this is over we'll have data to figure it out	Demonaut	Mar 2020	#4
We know little about the immune response thus far.	hlthe2b	Mar 2020	#6
I am wondering as well	Meowmee	Mar 2020	#7
That's fascinating information.	Mike 03	Mar 2020	#13
Yw, I found it fascinating too nt	Meowmee	Mar 2020	#17
I keep wondering about Italians.	moondust	Mar 2020	#8
Same randomness in the Black Death	JCMach1	Mar 2020	#9
It's possible that they have a genetic mutation affecting susceptibility	Spider Jerusalem	Mar 2020	#10
That's what's happening - most (but not all) of the time, the body shrugs it off like a cold.	backscatter712	Mar 2020	#11
Great info.	Mike 03	Mar 2020	#14
Yep. When the hospitals get overwhelmed, it's gonna be a scene from The Stand.	backscatter712	Mar 2020	#15
Possibly.	PoindexterOglethorpe	Mar 2020	#16
All good questions ...	GeorgeGist	Mar 2020	#20

Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:29 PM

bamagal62 (1,127 posts)

1. I've wondered the same.

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:34 PM

rainy (5,735 posts)

2. I heard blood type O had a better immunity to it.

From a report from a China study.

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Response to rainy (Reply #2)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:36 PM

Mike 03 (15,903 posts)

3. I saw that too. Very intriguing. nt

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Response to rainy (Reply #2)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:43 PM

WyattKansas (1,549 posts)

5. Woo Hoo!!!!!

I'm blood type O.

Oddly enough, I have multiple autoimmune diseases, where my immune system attacks things I need too. I have often joked that I get nailed with bad health, yet have a super gene in me to keep me alive, so I must have previously pissed off someone up there.

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Response to WyattKansas (Reply #5)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:19 PM

A HERETIC I AM (21,511 posts)

12. I'm O neg.

The universal donor.

If true, this may be my only hope, as I am otherwise pretty high risk, from what I've read. Closing on 61, COPD, dangerous occupation, etc.

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Response to A HERETIC I AM (Reply #12)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 06:42 PM

rainy (5,735 posts)

18. I'm O positive

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Response to rainy (Reply #18)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 06:55 PM

A HERETIC I AM (21,511 posts)

19. Cheers!

Hopefully it will lend itself to our continued health!

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:36 PM

Demonaut (7,660 posts)

4. after this is over we'll have data to figure it out

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:44 PM

hlthe2b (83,210 posts)

6. We know little about the immune response thus far.

Given this began circulating in US during the midst of cold season (and while colds comprise a number of unrelated viruses, including rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, parainfluenza, and RSV)-- some are coronaviruses. While it is unlikely there would be any long term cross-immunity, a small amount is possible for someone recently recovered from such an infection and conferring a small amount of protection.

We shall see.

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 04:54 PM

Meowmee (1,908 posts)

7. I am wondering as well

We don’t have enough data to tell for sure yet and even then it may not be clear. My guess is their immune system fights it off before symptoms occur or they already had some immunity somehow.

A doc who started a new protocol for rabies treatment believes that 25% of people exposed fight the virus off before getting to the symptom stage. There was a study that showed some people who lived in a region with bats in Peru, who had never had rpep, had rabies antibodies.

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Response to Meowmee (Reply #7)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:21 PM

Mike 03 (15,903 posts)

13. That's fascinating information.

Thanks.

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Response to Mike 03 (Reply #13)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 06:33 PM

Meowmee (1,908 posts)

17. Yw, I found it fascinating too nt

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:11 PM

moondust (16,533 posts)

8. I keep wondering about Italians.

If they could have some kind of genetic vulnerability. Yes, the population is older but why Lombardy? It's not among the most popular tourist destinations in Italy. I don't know why Italy and Lombardy in particular has been hit so badly.

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:15 PM

JCMach1 (25,912 posts)

9. Same randomness in the Black Death

I wouldn't count on blood type to protect you...

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:16 PM

Spider Jerusalem (21,246 posts)

10. It's possible that they have a genetic mutation affecting susceptibility

I am, apparently, immune to norovirus (due to being a "non-secretor"

, so it may be something like that.

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:17 PM

backscatter712 (26,299 posts)

11. That's what's happening - most (but not all) of the time, the body shrugs it off like a cold.

Again, don't diminish the seriousness.

About 85% of the time someone gets Captain Trumps, the immune system works normally - it generates antibodies, the immune system rallies, it murders the virus, and the person recovers. It's insidious in that many of these people who shrug off the bug are contagious even though they have light or no symptoms.

It's that other 15% or so that's the problem - that's when complications arise that require medical intervention, like the immune system overreacting and creating a cytokine storm, and all of the sudden, the patient's drowning in their own snot, they're getting opportunistic bacterial infections resulting in pneumonia, or the pneumonia gets in the bloodstream resulting in multiple organ failure & death.

The cytokine storms & pneumonia are why people end up getting plugged into ventilators.

The elderly, and people with respiratory or immune conditions are more vulnerable for obvious reasons, but even young and healthy people are being killed by Trump Lung.

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Response to backscatter712 (Reply #11)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:22 PM

Mike 03 (15,903 posts)

14. Great info.

The cytokine storm aspect is terrifying.

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Response to Mike 03 (Reply #14)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:31 PM

backscatter712 (26,299 posts)

15. Yep. When the hospitals get overwhelmed, it's gonna be a scene from The Stand.

There are not enough ventilators to go around - we're already seeing CONVOYS of army trucks full of coffins carrying away the dead in Italy.

I get the feeling before this is done, people are going to be trying to ventilate patients with contraptions made out of bicycle pumps and pieces of garden hose...

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:46 PM

PoindexterOglethorpe (17,721 posts)

16. Possibly.

It would be at all surprising.

The basic information about our immune system is this: We are actually born with immunity to an incredible number of things. Then, we are exposed to lots and lots of diseases in our early years, and if we survive to about age 10 or so we're good to go for the next 40 or so years. In that time we reproduce, hunt game and gather fruits and stuff for the tribe. With any luck at all no accident gets us, and we live long enough for our youngest child to be launched. Then our immune system starts diminishing in power and eventually we all die.

Of course these days there are plenty of vaccines so we don't need to go through the immune system challenge in our youth any more.

In recent decades modern medicine has been able to treat and keep alive people who clearly would have died in earlier times. A lot of those are the ones we now say have underlying health issues and are therefore more susceptible to a bad outcome here.

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Response to Mike 03 (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2020, 07:35 PM

GeorgeGist (23,721 posts)

20. All good questions ...

would love to know the answers.

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