Why the New Coronavirus May Give Some of Us Superpowers

These superpowers can be used for good

Superhero origin stories feature a life-altering traumatic event: A radioactive spider gave Spider-Man superhuman powers, exposure to cosmic rays gave the Fantastic Four extraordinary capabilities. 

The new coronavirus is the life-altering event of our times; it isn’t supernatural, and it’s unfortunately all too real. Its spread has upturned the entire world order and the health and economic fallout are unprecedented.

But exposure to this threat will likely give some of us superpowers. Identifying these people requires scientific rigor, and turning them into heroes relies on the kind of altruism that arises in times of extreme stress.

Let me explain.

The superpower of safety

Right now, as we try to control the spread of the virus, everyone’s considered unsafe.

The virus is obviously spread by people who are sick with COVID-19, but can also be transmitted by people that don’t have symptoms –they may develop them later or perhaps not even at all. That’s why cities, states and countries are issuing social distancing, shelter-in-place and quarantine directives.

Every person entering a hospital and a nursing home is now endangering the most vulnerable of people. The loneliness of isolation in these crazy times is particularly hard for older people, people with disabilities and comorbidities. The one solace we could once promise loved ones, the sickest of patients, the dying, is that they will never be alone. Even that cannot be offered to some COVID-19 patients, who die with no family or friend at their bedside. 

Identifying the immune who cannot transmit

Since the virus is new, there are still many unanswered questions: Is it possible to get the virus more than once? There’s a case report from China of a recovered patient who tested positive for the virus after he was declared disease free, and there are several stories in the news; it’s most likely that this isn’t reinfection, but rather a diagnostic or testing error. A small animal-model test shows that re-infection doesn’t happen. Can the virus mutate and infect previously immune people? How long does immunity last? Immunity to coronaviruses causing the common cold wanes with time, and lasts only a few years.

But if infection with COVID-19 produces long term immunity – which is what experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci assume – the recovered will be a class of their own, endowed with all-access privileges.

Testing is key to the identification and verification of people that cannot be vectors of this disease.

Testing for COVID-19 is performed by two main methods, molecular testing, which recognizes viral genetic material, and serology tests, which identify antibodies the immune system makes in response to the virus. 

The testing done right now in the US is molecular testing. It’s the gold standard for proving the presence of the virus in body secretions, and testing is now ramped up and being improved so that results will come back from the lab faster.

Serology based testing, or immunoassays, which are not in clinical use for COVID-19 at this point, don’t detect the virus, but rather the body’s reaction to it. 

Certain serology tests use markers from the body’s response to COVID-19, and can determine if the new virus has infected the person, even when the virus is no longer present. The way to tell if the infection is current, or was in the past, is by looking at two types of antibodies, IgM and IgG.  IgM is the first antibody the body produces in reaction to a new infection, and it signifies an acute infection. IgG is an antibody that is produced later in the body’s fight against an organism, usually conferring long-term immunity.

The combination of different test methodologies would enable accurate and sensitive confirmation of both infection and recovery. Serological tests will also help answer many important epidemiological questions and identify asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic cases. At this point we know very little about asymptomatic infections. Asymptomatic people are probably a substantial fraction of those infected with the new Coronavirus: on the Diamond Princess around 20 percent of virus positive people developed no symptoms, as did 40 percent of Japanese evacuees from Wuhan. As many as a third of those who tested positive in China by February were asymptomatic, according to classified Chinese government data reported by the South China Morning Post.

There’s a race to develop reliable antibody testing, and several products are now being evaluated.

Once it’s established that natural immunity protects from reinfection, and that the immune person doesn’t transmit disease, this individual may be able to walk through the fire that is the coronavirus pandemic.

Using the superpower for good

We already have hundreds of thousands known recovered patients around the world, and most likely many many more. We need to find them and learn their powers.

Like the O negative blood (universal) donor, whose blood can be deployed in cases of emergency, immune people will be able to do what others can’t.

They’ll be able to relieve the unbearable loneliness of elderly and medically vulnerable people who’ll be advised to maintain social distancing for many months. They can be with COVID-19 patients in their darkest hours. They’ll be able to take on important educational, economic, security and medical tasks. They’ll be able to assist the dedicated heroes in the frontline: medical professionals, first responders, the entire supply chain of our food and other necessities, to name just a few.

Blood donations from the COVID-19 immune could be extremely important.

Antibodies from immune people are being tested as a drug in severe COVID-19 patients, in an attempt to grant them passive immunity. The serum of recovered COVID-19 patients with high titers of antibodies can possibly neutralize the virus in newly exposed people.

No one should rush to get this superpower. Our only goal right now is to slow the spread of the disease. But using the force of immunity to help others is just one of the ways in which we’ll be turning this horrible adversity into a source of strength. 

For now, we need research, data. And lots of COVID-19 testing.

Dr. Ayala