Had Covid but never felt sick? Scientists think they’ve finally cracked the secret of the ‘super-dodgers’

Steph Grant, 29, Sydney

When Steph Grant’s boyfriend tested positive for Covid last year, she assumed she was next.

The 29-year-old and her partner, James Cruickshank, live together in a rented apartment in Sydney.

But months later Ms Grant, 29, who admits she easily catches colds, was still Covid-free.

Ms Grant, who spoke to MailOnline in May 2022, is not alone in being baffled at why she’s avoided the much-feared virus.

Lisa Stockwell, 34, Somerset

Frontline worker Lisa Stockwell, a 34-year-old nurse from Somerset, worked in A&E and, for most of 2020, in a ‘hot’ admissions unit where Covid-infected patients were first assessed.

Towards the end of 2021, she signed on with a nursing agency, which assigned her daily shifts almost exclusively on Covid wards. 

Colleagues working by her side have, at various points throughout the pandemic, ‘dropped like flies’.

Her loved ones also succumbed to the virus and she shared a bed with her husband while he was unwell with the virus for two weeks. 

But she told the Mail on Sunday in January 2022: ‘I didn’t get poorly at all, and my antibody test, which I took at the end of 2020, before I was vaccinated, was negative.

‘I expected to have a positive test at some stage, but it never came. I don’t know whether I have a very robust immune system, but I’m just grateful not to have fallen sick.’

She adds: ‘My husband was sick for two weeks with a raging temperature that left him delirious. He was really poorly but refused to go to hospital. 

‘Despite sharing a bed with him, I never caught it.’

Nasim Forooghi, 46, London

Nasim Forooghi, 46, a cardiac research nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Central London, had a similar tale.

The mother-of-two, whose husband is an NHS doctor, was heavily involved in research tracking Covid among frontline staff – a role that potentially exposed her to hundreds of infected people since the pandemic began in early 2020.

Like Lisa, she too had a succession of antibody tests which found no trace of the virus ever being in her system.

‘Obviously I was using protective clothing but, even so, I was exposed to a lot of infected people,’ Nasim told the Mail on Sunday in January 2022.

‘I don’t know if it was down to a strong immune system or maybe I just got lucky.

‘I was having blood tests every week but they found nothing, even though I was exposed to it regularly.’

Michelle Daisley, 43, London 

Michelle Daisley, a financial services consultant in London, believes she has avoided catching the virus – despite her family becoming unwell with Covid.

She told HuffPost in January 2023: ‘Given my repeated exposure to Covid, it must be due to my immune system (and being vaccinated).

‘When my sons (then 2 and 5) had it, it was impossible to isolate from them; in fact both of them were regularly coughing in my face so I gave up trying to take any precautions, and yet I still didn’t get it.’

Ms Daisley added: ‘I don’t have any risk factors so was never particularly worried about catching Covid myself, but having watched my husband get quite sick, I’m glad I seem to be immune.’

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