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Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
July 05, 2022
While the variants continue to circulate in the territory, thousands of people have never tested positive. Immunity, diet, false negative… Here are some possible explanations.
Despite wearing a daily mask and respecting barrier gestures, some people have been infected with the coronavirus. Others, conversely, strangely seem to have been spared. How to explain it? Dr. Kierzek gives us some answers.
They had Covid-19 without knowing it
The first hypothesis is a form of “discreet” contamination, that is to say a coronavirus which would have gone unnoticed. Some patients – known as healthy carriers – do not in fact develop symptoms.
“Without a test, these people therefore do not realize that they are carrying the virus”, says the doctor.
In 2020, the Minister of Health already confirmed that “80% of people have few or no symptoms. It is therefore a virus which is asymptomatic or benign in the vast majority of French people..”
The Covid-19 passed for a cold
During a coronavirus infection, not everyone coughs or loses their sense of smell.
Result: the disease passes for a simple cold. Fever, cough, sore throat or fatigue are indeed symptoms common to both viruses.
The test was a false negative
False negatives are rare but they do exist. Often coming from defective batches, they are not reliable and indicate a distorted result.
“Tests can give false negatives when the amount of virus is too low to be detected” also recalls Dr. Kierzek.
Depending on the tests carried out, the results may therefore vary.
Part of the population is genetically “different”
Some people seem to be “going between the drops” since the start of the pandemic. The fruit of an innate resistance to infection?
“Yes, people seem naturally immune or seem different from a genetic point of view. We are still looking for scientific and medical answers”confirms the emergency doctor.
However, this phenomenon seems quite rare.
Some people have a stronger immune system
Last hypothesis: some people with a “healthy” lifestyle (balanced diet, regular sport, etc.) seem to have a more robust immune system.
This part of the population would present a good general state of health (without diseases or deficiencies), and would be of a low stress nature – high levels of stress can indeed have a negative impact on the immune system.
The way these people live would therefore have a significant impact on the virus.
“Nevertheless, anyone who has escaped Covid-19 can still have it. The virus still slips through the cracks, so don’t be too confident”concludes Dr. Kierzek.