What can scientists learn from people who’ve never had COVID?

Infectious diseases doctor and researcher Sabrina Assoumou says so-called “super-dodgers” could teach scientists a lot about the virus that causes COVID.

Five years after the world shut down in response to the rapid spread of a mysterious disease, the total number of reported cases of COVID-19 worldwide is approaching 800 million. That’s roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Europe. Approximately 10,000 new cases are still reported every day worldwide.

And, yet, somehow in our midst are Novids, or so-called “super-dodgers”—people who have never had COVID-19.

BU Today first wrote about this phenomenon in January 2023, speaking to Boston University clinician and researcher Sabrina Assoumou. That story became one of the most-read in the publication’s history—and one of the most-commented-on, as people shared their own tales of being exposed to the virus but never testing positive.

“Never had Covid. No vaccine. 4 out of 6 people in my household have had it twice or more. 3 of them were vaccinated with boosters. I’m confused as to why I’ve never gotten it,” one woman writes.

Scientists are curious, too, because if they can determine whether Novids have some sort of genetic code, antibody, or cell makeup that is helping to ward off COVID, they might be able to use that information to design stronger treatments or more effective vaccines.

Here, two years later, Assoumou digs into what scientists have learned about COVID and people who’ve never gotten it:

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