Asymptomatic with COVID? You can probably thank your genes

BOSTON - If you caught COVID but never developed symptoms, you can probably thank your genes.

About 20 percent of people infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 never develop symptoms and scientists are trying to figure out why. In this study published in Nature, a team at the University of California, San Francisco looked at more than 1,400 unvaccinated individuals who reported testing positive for COVID.

They found that those with a particular gene variation that allows the immune system to spot the coronavirus quickly and target it were significantly less likely to develop symptoms than people with other variations in that particular gene. They said the discovery could lead to better treatments for COVID-19.

In:
• Health
• COVID-19

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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