One of the biggest questions this afternoon about the COVID-19 pandemic has been why the virus kills some people and leaves others without detecting symptoms. Now, six months into the pandemic, we are finally getting some answers. According to Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), if you’re one who is known to get the common cold year after year, you may have some protection against the new coronavirus, thanks to the T cells in your immune system.
“If you look at [your immune system] metaphorically as an army with varying levels of defense, the antibodies prevent the virus from entering. That’s something like the first line of defense, “Fauci McClatchy said in a recent interview. For those viruses that escape and infect some cells, the T cells come in and kill the cells that are infected or block them. “
Fauci said much of the COVID research was “entirely exclusively focused on the antibody test,” but, he said, T cells are an “equally important component of the immune system.”
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Because COVID-19 is a new coronavirus, it was initially believed that your T cells could not detect it. It was assumed that T cells would only be found in people who already have COVID-19. But a new NIAID study published in the journal Science on August 4, suggests that up to 50 percent of people who are not exposed to the coronavirus need the T cells to fight the virus. Neither was a German study published in the journal Nature at the end of July looked at 68 healthy people who had not yet been exposed to the coronavirus. Among them, 35 percent needed the T cells in their blood to attack the new coronavirus.
As a result of this new study, experts believe that healthy individuals may have generated these T cells in combating similar infections of related coronaviruses in the past, such as the common cold. And the more recently an individual has been infected with another type of coronavirus, the more likely they are to have some protection against COVID-19, Fauci told McClatchy.
“It’s kind of a punch of two,” he said. “It’s thought that the T cells that made you react a few years ago – three, four, five years ago – when you were exposed to a relatively benign coronavirus that caused the cold, could actually surround , and when you are exposed to the SARS Coronavirus-2, you may have some protection, “he said.
Serving as a secondary line of defense in the immune system Once antibodies have failed or disappeared, T cells also last much longer than antibodies. So, if you have read those striking reports that antibodies do not last – like a July study from the UK that found that COVID antibodies were rejected after only three weeks from the onset of infection – do not worry. These reports ignore the role of T cells, according to Fauci and other experts, which is just as pivotal.
Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told CNN that pre-existing T cells can also help us understand why COVID affects people so differently.
“If you can compare people with bad and mild illness and try to look at the T cells in those individuals and say, ‘Are people who have serious illness less likely to have cross-reactive T cells against people who “Mild disease may have more? cross-reactive T cells?” I think there is biological plausibility to that hypothesis, “he said. “However, it is clear that the presence of the T cell does not prevent people from becoming infected, but does it modulate the severity of infection? That is what seems to be the case.” And for more on this, check out This Is Why COVID Kills Some People and Others Are Symptom-Free, Says Study.
Gallery: 23 shocking characters from COVID-19 that you did not know (best life)
23 shocking signs of COVID-19 that you did not know
Today, we are all familiar with the most common signs of coronavirus. A fainting cough, a spitting fever, and working breathing are all signs you should test for COVID-19. But more and more, researchers are becoming aware of newer symptoms that do not seem to fit into the mold of how we think about this respiratory virus. These are sneaky, surprising characters that often fly under the radar, putting you at a higher risk of inadvertently transmitting COVID to others.
Unfortunately, these symptoms affect almost every part of the body and present in drastically different ways. They range from heart palpitations, to pink eyes, to “COVID toes”, to a loss of taste or smell – and that’s just the beginning. Read on for the full roster of early coronavirus symptoms you may be ignoring. And for more coronavirus mysteries to set up right away, check out 25 Coronavirus Myths You Must Stop Believing, According to Doctors.
1. Delirium
Delirium is a common symptom among the most severe cases of COVID, especially in cases where the patient is elderly. According to The Harvard Gazette, one-third of patients who are in the hospital, and two-thirds of patients whose cases are classified as “serious,” experience delirium in the form of extreme confusion and vivid hallucinations.
2. Coughing up blood
Although cough is a common symptom of coronavirus, few people are aware that a percentage of COVID patients cough up blood. Although alarming, it does not necessarily mean a severe case of the virus. “Inflammation of the airways sometimes leads to a very fragile lining of the airways, and those small blood vessels, like capillaries, can be affected, causing blood to come out,” Anthony Rizzo, MD, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, told Today.
Loss of taste or smell
4. COVID toes
If you have noticed painful, red sores on the tips of your toes, you may have a coronavirus symptom, often referred to as “COVID toes.” Perhaps one of the earliest signs of the virus, a June study in the British Journal of Dermatology showed that patients have reported foot pain, known as chilblains with “increasing frequency.” These are caused by vascular and endothelial damage, and typically go away after two to three weeks.
6. Swollen eyelids
Swollen eyelids are a lesser known symptom of coronavirus. They appear on a broader list of eye problems that “occur more frequently in people with severe infections” from COVID, according to William F. Marshall, III, MD, a specialist in infectious disease with the Mayo Clinic.
7. Pink eye
Similarly, researchers have revealed that pink eye is considered to be common cause for a COVID test. According to an April study published in The Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology, conjunctivitis may be a primary symptom of coronavirus, in the absence of fever or respiratory symptoms.
8. Sensitivity to light
The Mayo Clinic points out that sensitivity to light is another unusual ocular symptom that a COVID diagnosis may suggest. A March study published in JAMA Ophthalmology recently reported that this was one of several eye-related symptoms that 31 percent of coronavirus patients experienced.
9. Transfer stomach
According to the CDC, gastrointestinal symptoms are a common, yet surprising sign of coronavirus. Excessive stomach and diarrhea often appear in milder cases, sometimes presenting as the COVID only symptom.
12. Wheels
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly 11 percent of coronavirus patients experience tremors while battling their disease. This surprising symptom is typically accompanied by a fever.
13. Blood clots
Although blood clots are unfortunately considered a fairly common symptom of severe coronavirus, they remain surprising in how widespread and aggressive they can be. Amy Rapkiewicz, MD, a pathologist from NYU Langone Medical Center, recently told CNN that she found blood clots in “almost every organ” during autopsies of deceased COVID patients.
14. Muscle pain and weakness
A May study published in the journal Cureus found that about 18 percent of patients with coronavirus report myalgia – the clinical term for muscle pain as weakness – as part of their disease. Although uncomfortable, this particular symptom is not statistically associated with severe cases.
15. Runny nose as congestion
According to the CDC, having a runny nose or congestion can be a troublesome sign of coronavirus. This symptom is often dismissed as the common cold as a seasonal allergy, making it difficult to recognize as a symptom of COVID.
17. “Happy” hypoxia
Researchers have found one shocking and disruptive symptom of coronavirus that could put many patients at risk: “lucky” hypoxia. This is when a patient’s blood oxygen levels dip dangerously low, but without the narrative respiratory distress that normally flags the problem. Investing in a blood oxygen monitor could save your life, in case you present this sneaky symptom.
18. A “fizzing” sensation in your chest
Increasingly, patients with coronavirus have begun to report a ‘wheezing’, ‘tingling’, ‘fizzling’, or ‘burning’ feeling in their chest. This may be the feeling of the immune system activating immune cells and releasing chemicals, Waleed Javaid, MD, director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York, said Today. “Our immune cells are activated so that a lot of chemicals are released by our body and that can present as feeling like there is something fizzy,” he said.
19. Stroke
Blood clots are common among patients with coronavirus, and even young, otherwise healthy patients have stroke as a result. In May, The New York Times reported a “flurry of cases” in which patients suffered stroke, with little or no other symptoms at all.
20. Dizziness
Dizziness is yet another surprising sign of coronavirus – one that reveals the neurological effects that the virus can have on the body, according to a June study in the Journal of Neurology. These spells can be vicious and abrupt, in some cases can cause cursing or a feeling of vertigo. And for more neurological effects of COVID, check out the Surprising Coronavirus Symptom that you have not heard of.
21. Wurgens
According to the same Journal of Neurology study on the neurological effects of coronavirus, 33 percent of COVID patients experience fatigue when they are ill. This was the most common neurological manifestation of the virus, and one that is likely to be compounded by other symptoms.
22. Malaise
The same study also shows that many coronavirus patients reported their malaise feelings, a general feeling of discomfort or discomfort with no clear source. Some patients whose illness has been delayed for months report this feeling long after other symptoms have disappeared, The Washington Post reports.
23. High iron levels
In the context of coronavirus, high iron levels could indicate a highly dangerous immune response called a cytokine storm that can cause death in even young, otherwise healthy patients. According to a June study in the Pan American Journal of Public Health, monitoring iron levels, which may signal immune dysregulation, may alert physicians if the patient is at risk of a severe cytokine response.
