If you haven’t caught COVID yet, does that mean you’re a ‘superdodger’? Local doctor weighs in

The latest numbers from the Ohio Department of Health show that since March 2020, more than 3 million Ohioans have had COVID— that’s about a quarter of everybody in the state.

If you haven’t caught COVID, doctors are calling you a “superdodger.”

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When it comes to COVID-19, the flu, colds and other sicknesses, you may be one of the lucky ones who rarely gets sick. Some say its luck, some say its a good immune system.

Meanwhile, doctors say its good genetics.

“I have not caught COVID because I don’t hang out with people, I don’t hang out in crowds,” said Athens Norman, Dayton resident. She told News Center 7 she’s avoided COVID for more than three years.

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Doctor Joseph Allen with Premier Health Regional Medical Director says it’s all in genetics.

“Traditionally, what we found is there’s a protein that is coded for by some genetic component that is a little bit different so that the virus doesn’t necessarily always infect the cell, if you will. In some instances, we found that it does infect the cell, but it isn’t able to replicate the way that it normally would, and so you don’t get any symptoms,” Allen said.

Allen said a person can be resistant to some viruses but not all viruses because they all mutate differently.

With the high level of COVID exposure that we’ve all been around, News Center 7 asked Allen if it was possible to be a “superdodger” if you haven’t had it.

“So yeah, having not had it and had that level of exposure, we probably qualify as that under that definition of a ‘superdodger,’” Allen said.

Allen says that researchers are already in motion when it comes to finding how to utilize the genes of “superdodgers” so that it can be made into some type of treatment to help others from getting sick.

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