Scientists want to study people who haven't contracted COVID-19 yet

CINCINNATI (WKRC) — Scientists want to study people who have yet to get COVID-19.

If you are someone who has not had COVID, or at least any symptoms from it, you might be what researchers now refer to as a "super-dodger."

I've been exposed a lot over the last two-and-a-half years, as well as most of the staff here, and this is my first case," said Dr. Scott Woods, a family medicine specialist.

Woods might have been a super-dodger, but recently he got hit with what was likely the new BA.5 strain that's now going around.

As this virus evolves, it gets more and more infectious," said Woods.

He's cleared the virus but still has a bad cough. As a family medicine doctor, he knows a lingering cough is very common.

As of this week, samples taken from commercial labs show us almost 6 in 10 adults and 8 in 10 children have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2.

So, it's not as severe of a disease as it was, but who wants COVID?" said Dr. Stephen Blatt, an infectious disease specialist.

Now, scientists are searching the world for people who've not had the virus to continue to study them.

So far, it appears one gene, HLA-B*15:01, is linked to people who get infected but have no symptoms.

But COVID human genetic effort scientists are now looking for people who don't think they've had the virus at all despite repeated exposure to it.

There's early evidence that some of these people may be super-or even mini-dodgers, where they have a genetic mutation that either keeps them from getting infected or unique T cells, which are infection-fighting cells that linger from other coronaviruses that fight off this one.

To learn more about the study and the doctors behind it, visit covidhge.com/participants.