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Another hypothesis will sound familiar to those who have been following coronavirus developments closely. Some researchers have shown that other human coronaviruses that cause common colds can elicit an immune response that could provide protection against COVID-19.<\/p>\n
South African researchers went to work on that idea, attempting to analyze five-year-old blood samples that were conserved from a flu vaccine trial in Soweto. The plan was to look for any evidence that would explain why the African continent is faring much better against the illness than others. Those samples were compromised by technical issues that put a stop to the research.<\/p>\n
But the idea stands. The same crowded neighborhoods that would lead to the quick spread of\u00a0other coronaviruses may have protected the population<\/a>\u00a0from SARS-CoV-2.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hypothesis. Some level of pre-existing cross-protective immunity\u2026 might explain why the epidemic didn\u2019t unfold (the way it did in other parts of the world)\u201d Mahdi said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe protection might be much more intense in highly populated areas, in African settings. It might explain why the majority (on the continent) have asymptomatic or mild infections.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of anything else that would explain the numbers of completely asymptomatic people we\u2019re seeing. The numbers are completely unbelievable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But if that hypothesis is true, why have Brazil and India seen massive COVID-19 surges in the past few months? Karim warned that even considering the evolution of the pandemic on the continent so far, Africa isn\u2019t out of the woods. \u201cI\u2019m not sure whether one day the epidemic is going to spread like crazy here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The novel coronavirus has\u00a0infected more than 26.35 million people, with just four countries accounting for over 15 million cases. They are America, Brazil, India, and Russia \u2014 the same four that have been at the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,3,2],"tags":[27,35],"coauthors":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-4588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-top-news","10":"tag-africa","11":"tag-coronavirus"},"yoast_head":"\n