Those people who didn’t have COVID-19

The COVID-19 has invited itself in the house of Nicholas Bourgon in the month of February. Sneakily.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

It all started on a Monday morning, when his partner Marieve had a sore throat, less than 24 hours after contact with a positive case. She took a quick test — negative — and canceled meetings during the week. Nicholas also did a quick test before going to floor hockey, just to be sure. Negative too.

Five days later, just before the weekend, the couple and their two daughters, 8 and 11, took another quick test. This is where they discovered the pot of roses: the second small pink line appeared on the test of Mariève and also on that of their eldest daughter, yet asymptomatic.

That day, the two infected wore the mask in the house and slept in the basement. But after 24 hours, they returned to the ground floor (and Mariève, the marital bed). After all, they had just spent the week together.

Nicholas and his youngest child have never tested positive.

Subsequently, the computer scientist was in contact two or three times with presymptomatic people, but he never had a positive test. Did he have it without knowing it? About 15% to 30% of COVID-19 cases are said to be asymptomatic.

A large minority

Before the Omicron wave swept through the province, it was estimated that about 10% of Quebecers had contracted COVID-19. Their numbers have since exploded. In a serological survey conducted in June, Héma-Québec showed that 45% of blood donors developed antibodies against COVID-19 between December 2021 and June 2022.

Blood donors are not fully representative of the population, Quebecers are probably more likely than that to have caught COVID-19.

According to the D^r Timothy Evans, director general of the Task Force on Immunity to COVID-19, we can think that between 35% and 40% of Quebecers have not been affected to date. “It’s a significant minority,” he says.

Diane Beaudry, 67, is also one of them. She’s had a sore throat a few times in the past two years, she’s also seen presymptomatic people, but she’s never tested positive. “I feel like an eel fleeing COVID-19,” says Diane, grandmother of five grandchildren.

His brother, sister and mother never contracted it either. Diane has been careful during the pandemic, but she also wonders about genetic factors.

Behaviours

Studies show that genes could decrease the risk of contracting COVID-19 or suffering serious complications from it. Researchers have also shown that the immunity acquired through other coronoraviruses (responsible for the common cold) could also influence the consequences of COVID-19 in people.

This work brings interesting hypotheses, of course, but the most determining factor remains behavior, underlines Patricia Hudson, scientific director in the direction of biological risks at the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ). In short, the exposures we have had and the vaccination experience.

The rate of infection with COVID-19 also decreases with age, precisely because of the caution of seniors during the pandemic.

Micheline Corriveau, 80, has never caught it either, although there have been a few outbreaks in her residence. She considers herself lucky. “Especially at my age,” she said. I don’t want to catch it. »

The D^D Patricia Hudson also sees an element of luck in it. “With equal behavior, some people will get infected, and others will not. »

Avoid it?

If scientists first hoped to be able to interrupt the transmission of SARS-COV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), they now expect it to be part of the ecology of viruses that circulate from year to year.

Can a person really hope to never catch COVID-19?

“It is certain that the probability that everyone will end up being exposed one day is still good, but it can take some time, and it really depends on how it evolves”, answers Éric Litvak, associate vice-president of scientific affairs at the INSPQ.

The D^r Timothy Evans points out that it’s still early to say that COVID-19 is here forever, but “yes, he agrees, it may be very, very difficult for people to avoid it in the years to come. come “.

Despite this, people — and especially the most vulnerable — benefit from continuing to be careful. Why ? Because COVID-19 is a serious disease, because we must avoid getting sick all at the same time, and finally because technology also continues to evolve. “It may very well be that, in a few years, we will have a vaccination which will even prevent infection”, underlines the D^r Evans.

If the public health advice is the same, whether you have already had COVID-19 or not, Éric Litvak points out that people who have never had it have “a good reason to keep their vaccine protection as long as possible. possible, even a little more than the others”.