Since the end of last year, the novel coronavirus has been shrouded in mystery. Public health experts have been searching for answers on how the virus infects humans, and why it infects some more than others.
Finding answers to these mysteries could come from a vaccine and monitoring asymptomatic patients, experts told CNN recently.
Specifically, experts are asking themselves why some people suffer so much from the virus, while others leave no signs at all. Part of that is because of immune training, which essentially prepares your immune system for dealing with diseases and viruses.
“When we looked at the setting of COVID disease, we found that people who had previous vaccinations with a variety of vaccines – for pneumococcus, influenza, hepatitis and others – appeared to have a lower risk of COVID disease. , “Dr. Andrew Badley, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic, told CNN.
Experts told CNN that faxes can also hold answers. People can pick up the virus in different ways, which can affect how you react to it. Getting a fax dose could show public health officials what it means when someone is injected with the virus.
However, masks can help reduce how much of the virus you bring into your body, and reduce the risk of how badly the virus hurts you.
There were more than 163,000 deaths due to the coronavirus.
It would not be surprising if experts looked more deeply at asymptomatic patients. Nearly 40% of infected patients showed no symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Investigator Monica Gandhi said testing for those who did not show symptoms could be a good thing to end the pandemic, according to The Washington Post.
“A high rate of asymptomatic infection is a good thing,” Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Washington Post. “It’s a good thing for the individual and a good thing for society.”
Those asymptomatic patients may have T-cells of memory – which have previously fought against other coronaviruses – which may help lead to the end of the pandemic.
“This could potentially explain why some people seem to protect the virus and are less susceptible to becoming seriously ill,” National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said last week in a blog post.
