Can A Cold Protect Us From Covid-19?

From the Washington Post (Yes, that Washington Post) comes this about how the common cold may have played a part in many people being immune to or resistant to Covid-19.

When researcher Monica Gandhi began digging deeper into outbreaks of the novel coronavirus, she was struck by the extraordinarily high number of infected people who had no symptoms.

A Boston homeless shelter had 147 infected residents, but 88 percent had no symptoms even though they shared their living space. A Tyson Foods poultry plant in Springdale, Ark., had 481 infections, and 95 percent were asymptomatic. Prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia counted 3,277 infected people, but 96 percent were asymptomatic.

During its seven-month global rampage, the coronavirus has claimed more than 700,000 lives. But Gandhi began to think the bigger mystery might be why it has left so many more practically unscathed.

Even now we’re seeing a lot of people in my home state that test positive for Covid-19 showing minor or no symptoms. There have been no recent hospitalizations and very few deaths.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. Could it be that all we need to do to protect ourselves is to catch a cold?