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–Cold viruses are related to Corona (Brittany Colette / unsplash.com)
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Other corona viruses usually cause harmless colds. Such a cold could lead to better protection against infection with Sars-CoV2. That shows a little study from the UK. There, researchers examined a group of 52 test persons in September 2020. The test subjects lived in a household with a person who had Covid. So you were in contact with the virus. Within a week of the positive test, only half of the test subjects were also infected. Blood tests showed: those who were not infected had significantly higher concentrations of T cells in their blood, which were caused by a previous infection with a cold corona virus. According to the researchers, these T cells can also attack Sars-CoV2 because they react to proteins of the virus that hardly mutate and are found in many corona viruses.-
The researchers hope that their work can help develop new vaccines that will help against all coronaviruses. But you also say: Your study is small, so the findings are preliminary. At the moment, the best protection against corona infection is still: vaccinating and boosting.
Last year, researchers from Germany also carried out a similar study on better immune protection against Covid from a previous cold. You was noticedthat this so-called cross-immunity is decreasing in older people – which could be one reason why they are more prone to severe Covid courses.-
This message was broadcast on January 11th, 2022 on Deutschlandfunk.
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