![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/have-i-dodged-covid-and-what-does-it-mean/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127260750_bloodtest.jpg&description=Image source, James GallagherI hope this vial of blood contains answers because I have a nagging question - have I managed to dodge Covid?It seems remarkable that anyone could. The virus has swept the world since it emerged in China nearly three years ago. Fresh variants have become better and better at infecting us. Even vaccines make Covid milder rather than being an impenetrable shield. Yet I worked in the office throughout, even in lockdowns, and the virus ripped through the rest of my family and I didn't get sick. And I'm far from the only person to have gone through the pandemic without getting the walloping symptoms of Covid or to have never tested positive. One estimate in the summer suggested around one-in-10 people in the UK still hadn't been infected. So what's going on? And does my body - and those of other "never-Coviders" - contain some secret to tackling the disease? There are three broad possibilities if you think you've dodged the virus: You're wrong - you have actually been infected, but never realised You've never come into contact with it Or your body has some extra defence that has repelled it"There are a lot of people saying, 'I've never had 'Covid-the-disease'. Most probably aren't right, they may have been infected and it just didn't result in any symptoms," Dr Lindsay Broadbent, a virologist at the University of Surrey, tells me."But we do know there are just some people who have never been infected, even in high risk environments such as nurses," she adds.Listen to Inside Health: Have I dodged Covid?One study of people being regularly tested found half of those catching the Omicron variant remained blissfully unaware or put their mild symptoms down to something else. My blood - painfully milked out of my index finger - will determine whether I have been deluding myself too. I seal the blood in a vial and post it to a research laboratory for analysis of the mixture of antibodies it contains. Antibodies are a part of the immune system. They a){kind=link}
I hope this vial of blood contains answers because I have a nagging question – have I managed to dodge Covid?
It seems remarkable that anyone could. The virus has swept the world since it emerged in China nearly three years ago. Fresh variants have become better and better at infecting us. Even vaccines make Covid milder rather than being an impenetrable shield.
Yet I worked in the office throughout, even in lockdowns, and the virus ripped through the rest of my family and I didn’t get sick. And I’m far from the only person to have gone through the pandemic without getting the walloping symptoms of Covid or to have never tested positive. One estimate in the summer suggested around one-in-10 people in the UK still hadn’t been infected.
So what’s going on? And does my body – and those of other “never-Coviders” – contain some secret to tackling the disease?
There are three broad possibilities if you think you’ve dodged the virus: