Question: Are there any studies done on people who eat healthy, exercise, don’t smoke, rarely get sick, take the proper amount of vitamins/minerals and have no comorbidity and how this affects the person contracting Covid 19 or not?

Answer: As Dr. Fauci said in December, “There’s something very strange about a virus that in most people barely bothers them and in others it kills them. We still don’t understand why that’s the case right now.”    

• We do know that disease severity increases with age, racial/ethnic minority status, and underlying conditions (see Q&A of 11/18).  Global estimates indicate that case fatality rates are higher among men than women. 
• Many researchers also hypothesize that genetics related to innate immune response and inflammatory response respectively play a role in susceptibility to infection and disease severity (see Q&A of 12/15).  And a growing body of research shows that O blood type, especially O negative blood type, may be protective against COVID-19 infection and severity.  
• There’s also accumulating evidence indicating that disease severity increases as a person’s exposure to the virus increases (see Q&A 10/25).  
• Further, when it comes to susceptibility to infection, we have a mixture of infected host, environment, and the susceptible host factors that influence whether or not a person becomes infected (see Q&A of 11/16). 

To summarize, we likely have a mixture of socio-demographic, genetic, and environmental factors influencing susceptibility and disease severity.  There’s no special vitamin or exercise or food a person can take to protect against COVID– though it’s always good to maintain overall health!  Instead, the best way to avoid infection is to wear your mask, wash your hands, keep your distance, avoid the 3Cs– closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings, and get the vaccination when it’s your turn!