Too unfair! Some, even vaccinated, have had it several times and others, sometimes not vaccinated, have never caught it. Who are the “novids” who have never contracted the Covid-19 virus since it swept through France five years ago? Warriors with a strong immune system, champions of barrier gestures? Or just lucky people? Some of these novids responded to a call for testimonies launched by 20 Minutes and share their analyses.
The key: a healthy lifestyle?
At 75, Maurice has never been vaccinated against Covid-19 and has never caught it. “I’m not a superhero, I just have good genes,” he assures, praising an impeccable lifestyle combining healthy food, no alcohol or cigarettes and sport, since he was very young. age. Jean, a motorcycle mechanic, also escaped. Neither vaccinated nor tested, he just agreed to wear a mask to do his shopping. According to him, his secret lies in taking “fresh orange juice every morning”…
Kim, is not vaccinated and assures that he has never cheated or avoided taking tests. “I am as surprised as the others by my apparent “immunity”. However, I am convinced that my lifestyle may have helped to preserve me. I’ve been vegetarian for about ten years, which I think might have a beneficial role in strengthening my immune system. » Jean-François, almost 75 years old, has never been vaccinated either and all the tests he had to undergo to take the plane were negative. He also praises his lifestyle, adding however that he “does not use public transport” and “does not live in a community. » Exposure to risky situations is in fact also a factor to take into account.
Life, this great lottery
Catherine, a teacher vaccinated during the epidemic, was on the front line working with adolescents. “I should have had it, given the lack of precautions taken by certain students,” she believes. My children have had it several times. But in fact I never had a cold or a cough during these years. » Eric, too, ignores the runny nose and stubborn winter coughs. “I certify that I have never contracted Covid, just as I ignore rum, the flu, I never blow my nose. »
Jean got vaccinated and went through the entire Covid period without catching the virus once when his entire family, from his wife to his grandchildren, was infected. “I tried to be sick around them, but still nothing. » Philosopher, he concludes: “Frankly, life is a vast lottery”.
More down to earth explanations
“I don’t feel like a superhero, I may have tested positive and been part of the 85% of asymptomatic people revealed by tests at the start of the pandemic,” says Jean, the motorcycle mechanic. Agnès, spared by Covid even though her husband had it twice and her daughter once, does not get lost in conjectures but notes that she is “the queen of hand washing”, as soon as she has “touched something outside” his home.
-Benjamin, 41, also resisted the virus when his wife and child were failing. “Was I infected but completely asymptomatic? This is my hypothesis, he writes. I don’t really have any secrets: Sunday athlete, approximate lifestyle, but I think that having been raised in a family where we took little medication (except when we were really sick and on doctor’s recommendation), must have help me build titanium immunity. »
Our file on Covid-19
In June 2024, a study was published in the prestigious journal Natureon resistance to the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Of the 36 volunteers (never contaminated and never vaccinated) seven remained negative in the tests even though they had been administered the virus. The lucky ones apparently developed immune responses “never before seen in the nose,” Imperial College London, one of the institutions that led the study, said in a statement.
“Researchers suggest that high levels of a gene called HLA-DQA2 before exposure also helped people prevent the onset of prolonged infection,” he adds. Perhaps a clue for the scientific translation of Benjamin’s “titanium immunity”.
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