People escaping Covid infection might have a special gene to help them
The gene HLA-DQB1*06 will give people more antibodies after Covid shots
Roughly 30 to 40 per cent of people have the lucky gene, scientists said 2,400,000,000 people
Some people might never get Covid thanks to their genes, scientists say.
Researchers from the University of Oxford have found that people who have a particular mutation produce a larger antibody response after getting vaccinated.
Around 30 to 40 per cent of people have the gene, known as HLA-DQB1*06. The boosted protection might be enough to block out infections entirely.
It may partly explain why some people never get the virus, even when family members come down with the virus.
The US has the highest number of confirmed cases of any country in the world at 179million, the equivalent of more than half of the entire population.
This is likely an underestimate, however, because testing was patchy at the start of the outbreak and some people never take a test.
Yet, anecdotally there are many stories of people whose entire families come down with the virus and they avoid an infection – even after sharing a bed with someone who is sick.
This group of people have been dubbed ‘never Covid’ and scientists have never quite worked out how they managed it.