It's been three years and I still haven't caught it

Jul 04, 2023

Hello. My name is Velvet and as far as I'm aware, I've never had COVID-19.

Over the last three years I went out, I travelled interstate, I worked in an office, I've had colds and yet, I still haven't tested positive for COVID-19.

And I'm not the only one.

Many people have written in to tell us that they've avoided COVID-19 for the whole pandemic.

Leone Britt has had five doses of the COVID-19 vaccination.

She was stringent with her protections during the early days of the pandemic but having never caught the virus has begun to resume previous activities.

"I have only recently re-joined society, been to a few Salsa dance classes where there were no more than about eight people indoors," she told ABC News.

"I still wear [a N95 mask] to supermarkets, doctor's surgeries, pharmacies, indoor crowded places and anywhere I think someone is more likely to have COVID."

"I do not want to catch COVID, but I'm not as frightened of it as I was in 2020."

Michelle Pappas took an even larger leap back into the world, travelling to multiple European destinations in 2022.

But she's still yet to contract the virus – even after caring for her son who contracted COVID-19.

"I guess I'm one of the lucky ones — touch wood," Michelle told ABC News.

Michelle told us that during the height of the pandemic she would alter travel plans to avoid large crowds and that she's had five doses of the COVID-19 vaccination.

"I don't feel vulnerable, in fact I have been in close contact with COVID positive people and still haven't caught it. I almost feel immune to it."

It's possible.

University of Sydney professor of Nursing Marilyn Cruickshank says that could come down to two reasons:

"[It] might be that the person has had a very similar virus in the past – a coronavirus – that's given them immunity." Professor Cruickshank says.

"Exactly the same as vaccinations in the past when they used the cow pox vaccine to immune people to smallpox.

"So, if you've had a dose of another coronavirus then it's quite possible that you'll avoid the COVID-19 infection."

Alternatively, the cause of immunity could lie in your genetic makeup.

"Sometimes people have slightly different genes," Professor Cruickshank says.

"For example, they found in a group of people who had been exposed to HIV but hadn't contracted it, that they didn't have the right protein for HIV to get into the cells so they had what you could call a mutation that would protect them."

As the temperature drops, Australia is approaching its fifth COVID wave. This is what it could look like.

A similar genetic mutation could be what's keeping a small number of people safe from COVID-19 – even if they were living with an infected person.

While nothing definitive has been confirmed about genetic mutations protecting people from COVID-19, multiple groups around the world – including the National Institutes of Health in the US and the UK's Oxford University – are researching the phenomena.

"Scientists will be very keen to figure out why this has happened but that takes time," Professor Cruickshank says.

"But they'll find something."

Yes.

Just because you've never tested positive to COVID-19, it doesn't necessarily mean you've never had it, Professor Cruickshank says.

"It depends on the dosage of virus that you got, so a big dose is going to make you a lot sicker than a smaller dose.

"I think that's why some people might seem to have never had COVID.

"They probably have been exposed to a small dose, felt a bit unwell for a day but soon after felt okay and forgot about it.

"They could have had COVID and it was enough to protect them for a little bit."

It's hard to say for sure.

That's because the figures we have only take into account reported cases.

Because there's likely people out there who have had COVID without knowing it, those cases aren't being confirmed via testing, meaning they're not reported.

The World Health Organization says there's been 11.3 million cases in Australia – but that doesn't specify if multiple cases are from the same person.

Research from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) and the Kirby Institute indicates at least 65 per cent of Australians have had it.

So that would put the number closer to 17 million people who have contracted the virus.

While it's possible that a small amount of the population might be immune to COVID-19, Professor Cruickshank says it's important to view the situation from a macro level.

"There's two ways to think about infection and health; from the population point of view and from the individual point of view," she says.

"It's everyone's choice whether or not to get immunised but it's better for the population for as many people to get immunised as possible."

And despite being in the small few that have never had COVID-19, Leone agrees.

"I wear a mask to protect myself, and also because I do not want to get it and pass it on and then be responsible for the death of someone who is vulnerable," she says.

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