With COVID-19 still spreading across the world like wildfire and vaccines only available to senior citizens and people with comorbidities, a majority of people continue to remain unprotected from the novel coronavirus.?
However, one man just discovered that he has ¡®super antibodies¡¯ that would make it nearly impossible for him to contract the life-threatening novel coronavirus.
John Hollis, a former sports reporter-turned communications manager at the George Mason University got to learn about this in July, when he decided to volunteer in a coronavirus study on the campus.
In March, Hollis was on a trip with his teenage son Davis in Europe. On his way back and right before the flights were grounded) he experienced congestion which he warded off as normal sinus issues. In April, Hollis¡¯s housemate had a severe case of COVID-19, which really terrified him. He feared he would have a similar fate and in this fear, he even wrote a final letter for his teenage son, in case he didn¡¯t survive. But luckily he was safe.?
After enrolment in July, he got the revelation that he actually had contracted COVID-19, but what came as an even big shocker was when Lance Liotta, a George Mason University pathologist and bioengineer told Hollis that he had super antibodies.?
Hollis revealed that according to researchers, his blood was found to be so resistant to the novel coronavirus that even with the blood being diluted 10,000 times, it would manage to take down 90 percent of the coronavirus.?
To put it in simple terms, super antibodies are just a stronger, more potent antibody response from the human body after recovering from the novel coronavirus. The study conducted by Dr Davide Robbiana and Michel Nussenzweig at the Rockefeller University looked at 149 people who had recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma. Most participants had low levels of antibodies to fight against SARS CoV-2 however only 1 percent of participants had high levels of antibodies.??
Hollis said in a statement to UVA Today, ¡°What I was told is that less than 5 percent of recovering COVID patients around the world have super antibodies, and of the super antibodies, only about 1 percent have the neutralizing kind that I have ¨C the ones that kill everything. There are varying levels of super antibodies with varying levels of protection, but mine is basically the mother lode. I¡¯m immune to all strains of the virus right now.¡±
Liotta is of the belief that Hollis¡¯s blood could hold the key to unlock potential treatments for the novel coronavirus to save the lives of people in future. He said in a statement to NBC, ¡°Through John and others, we have been propelled into an exciting new science. Learning about his antibodies offers us new ways to fight COVID.¡±
Hollis has his blood and saliva tested every two weeks from July through December and even January onwards.?