John Hollis found that he was immune to the virus when he lived in the same house with a patient in severe condition of Covid-19 and did not get sick. Scientists believe his blood is “a gold mine” in the fight against the virus.
John Hollis is a 43-year-old American writer who discovered in July 2020 that the virus that causes Covid-19 cannot affect him, as it cannot enter his cells or make him sick.
As Hollis himself told the BBC, he learned of his condition when he told a doctor at the university where he works that he had been directly exposed to the virus when his roommate became seriously infected.
“I waited two weeks for the disease to hit me, but it never happened,” says the writer.
That’s why Dr. Lance Liotta, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, United States, invited him to participate in a study the university is conducting into the coronavirus.
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In this study, Hollis found that he had indeed contracted COVID-19, but also found that his body has super antibodies that prevent viruses from attacking his system.
Dr. Liotta, who was in charge of the study, said Hollis’s blood is “a gold mine” and will contribute greatly to the study of different ways to attack the virus.
The study found that Hollis super antibodies attack the virus in different ways and are even resistant to newer variants of the virus.
Scientists hope to create and improve vaccines against Covid-19 by testing the blood of people like Hollis. Reference photo / AFP
Liotta explains that in a normal person, antibodies attach and eliminate the pointed formations of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19; However, when people first come into contact with the virus, it takes a long time for these antibodies to form and therefore can become more serious in the process.
But in Hollis’s case it isn’t, his super antibodies are so powerful that, according to Dr. Liotta, could kill 99% of the virus, even if diluted by one in a thousand.
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Scientists, for their part, are studying various patients such as Hollis in hopes of creating and improving vaccines that are much more effective in the disease.
“I know I’m not the only person who has antibodies of this type, I’m just one of the few people who have been discovered,” Hollis concludes.