Hint of COVID-19 immunity: 3 sailors with antibodies spared in outbreak at sea

Enlarge / Fishing vessels in Seattle. (credit: Getty | Art Seitz)

Hints of protective immunity against the pandemic coronavirus have surfaced in the wake of a recent COVID-19 outbreak that flooded the crew of a fishing vessel.

The coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, infected 104 of the 122 people on board, about 85 percent, during a short voyage. But trawling through data collected before and after the ship set sail, researchers noted that the 18 spared from infection just happened to include the only three people on board that had potent, pre-existing immune responses against SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, the three sailors were the only ones found to have SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, which are proteins that circulate in the blood and completely sink the infectious virus.

The numbers are small, and the finding is not definitive. Additionally, the study appeared this month on a pre-print server, meaning it has not been published by a scientific journal or gone through peer review. Still, experts say the study was well done and significant for netting data that hints that potent, pre-existing immune responses from a past infection can indeed protect someone from catching the virus again.

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