“I can’t believe that I have never been infected with the coronavirus,” admits 40-year-old Efi Koumousi, speaking to “Vima” and continues: “We are a group of eight people and I am the only one who has never been sick. It’s the joke we tell each other.” Effie is among those in the… lucky group of those who have never had COVID-19 knock on the door in the four years that humanity has been learning to live with a virus that has forced the planet to shut down for months in an effort stopping its spread. The circumstances, of course, have now changed. Illnesses with the new coronavirus are common, with a large portion of the general population having already been infected two or even three times.
Name group
The virus struck friends, family and colleagues, and those who had escaped infection thought it was only a matter of time before they themselves became infected. However, despite the outbreaks and waves of new and more contagious sub-variants (eg Omicron), they remained “negative”. In fact, this category of people has its own name: “We are four years after the start of a pandemic that changed our lives in a unique and unprecedented way. So it seems that the majority of the planet has tested positive for the COVID-19 infection at least once, while many of us have been sick more than once. However, as with all diseases, there are people who never got infected and who are called “never-Coviders” or “no-Coviders”. explains the Stamatoula Tsikrikaspulmonologist and president of the Union of Pulmonologists of Greece.
Face to face with the virus
The 41-year-old Melina Skoufou recounts how in 2020 she came face to face with the virus, as her partner, with whom she lives, got sick, yet she never tested positive, nor did she show any symptoms, even though they were together while he was sick without knowing it : “I was preparing to have an operation and my partner, who would also be my companion in the operating room, had a fever for two days. He took a test in a microbiological laboratory, because there were no self-tests then, and it came out negative. We were happy and even kissed. The next day in the required for admission to the hospital PCR came out positive. But I wasn’t stuck”. In fact, last year in February her partner got sick for the second time. “It’s hard to say that I have never been in contact with COVID-19, being in a house twice with sick people and working with children and adults who were also sick. I’m certainly not invulnerable. At Christmas I traveled to Egypt. I was relaxed and said “I don’t catch coronavirus”, I didn’t wear a mask and I came back with influenza A. On the one hand I feel safe that I haven’t been infected, on the other hand I’m cautious at the same time, because you never know. I find it insulting for someone to say that they are not afraid of being completely stuck like this” describes.
“I think I’m just lucky”
In the same context, Efi mentions that she has been in contact many times with people who a little later found out that they were infected with the virus. She, however, has escaped him: “My parents, my relatives, my colleagues got stuck. Not once, but several times. I might have been in a group of six people and after a while five of them would have stuck together and I wouldn’t”. During the first lockdown she reverently observed personal protection measures, but over time her fervor waned. During the last wave of the virus, at Christmas, which brought back the obligation to use a mask on public transport, she never wore one: “The first time, especially during the confinement, I observed the measures, but also in the second lockdown I was careful with my contacts, I wore a mask. From a stage onwards, when we started going out again, I slowly started to relax. It goes without saying, however, that I wore a mask especially in MMM. Later, I began to drop this protection measure as well, until I finally dropped it altogether. In the last wave, during the holidays, when masks returned to the subway, I walked around without and again I didn’t get caught”. Where does she attribute her… immunity? “I think I’m just lucky. The only thing I’m afraid of is that at some point another mutation will come out and I’ll get seriously ill.”
Asymptomatic and not no-Coviders
It may be that according to their statement they have not been confronted with the virus, however the medical community has a different opinion, without of course rejecting the possibility of not being sick. “There is a percentage of our fellow human beings who are asymptomatic, meaning they have never shown symptoms, while they may have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but have not realized it. In this case we are not talking about people who have never been infected, but are simply asymptomatic. However, 30% of the infected population is asymptomatic. The percentage of the population that is not infected with the virus is probably very low” the Professor of Epidemiology of the University of Athens explains in “Vima”. Dimitris Paraskevis.
For his part, the 39-year-old Philip Zoitoswho also belongs to the closed group of no-Coviders, insists: “I have been exposed many times and have always taken tests, which were negative. So, in essence, I consider that it has been proven that I have not had COVID. My daughter was hooked and I was systematically tested. No positives came out”.
Regardless of whether or not they are actually infected, how likely are those people to develop symptoms? The pathologist-infectious disease specialist at “Sotiria” Hospital Bessaria Sakka he answers how “the chance is very small, as it seems they do have something protecting them”, while stating that the luck factor is the least likely. In the same question, however, Dimitris Paraskevis clarifies that “no one can say for sure what will happen when people who were asymptomatic when infected become infected again. We cannot know if they will develop symptoms and how severe in a future exposure to the virus.”
Truths and myths about never-Coviders
Scientific approaches to explain the phenomenon of not getting sick from COVID-19 are deeper, but a definitive answer to the question of why some people remain unaffected four years after the first wave broke out in Europe does not exist, at least not yet. “The medical community is trying to reason and understand why this phenomenon occurs. First of all, we believe that there are genetic factors, immunological or idiopathic, which allow one to escape infection in certain strains of the virus that have been circulating so far. Second, some of them may have been vaccinated or people in their social or work environment may have been vaccinated and thus indirectly protected. In addition, they may be people who are particularly sensitive to the use of personal protective equipment. That is, to avoid crowded places, to wear a mask, to follow the rules of respiratory hygiene. Finally, it can also be people who work remotely or their way of working is far from synchronism”, explains the president of the Greek Pulmonology Association Stamatoula Tsikrikas.
Series of factors
She states that the immune response to the COVID-19 infection is influenced by a number of factors. “People who have been sick in the past by another coronavirus may have an increased resistance to the possibility of future infection with COVID-19. Some medical studies report that people with specific food allergies are more resistant to the disease. Conversely, at the same time, studies linking specific blood groups with protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection were not verified. The moment when someone comes into contact with the new coronavirus also plays an important role, but also other factors, such as how well the person sleeps, how much they exercise, whether they smoke, etc. No one can at this point in time give a clear answer to the question of what is the real reason that some people escape infection. Surely, therefore, it is multifactorial and is even related to environmental or individual factors” he adds.
The issue of genes
Infectious pathologist Bissaria Sakka stands on the issue of genes: “There are some genes that protect against the disease. Most notably, a mutation in the human lymphocyte antigen, HLA-B19, appeared to have a protective value. Also, other polymorphisms in other genes may either protect against infections or primarily lead to asymptomatic infection,” he concludes.
Coordination: Angelos Skordas
Editor: Panagiotis Sotiris
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