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Study: You Can Have COVID-19-Fighting Antibodies Without Ever Having COVID-19

British researchers have made a somewhat surprising discovery about how someone's body can fight COVID-19, even if they'd never had the virus. After catching the common cold, some people--especially children--appear to have antibodies that could also offer some level of protection against SARS-CoV-2. According to HuffPost, the study, published online in the journal Science last week, was essentially an accident. Researchers in London were working on developing new, more sensitive tests that screen for COVID-19 antibodies. They found that among the 300 blood samples taken, nearly half of the children in the small study had antibodies that would recognize SARS-CoV-2. Our results show that children are much more likely to have these cross-reactive antibodies than adults. More research is needed to understand why this is, but it could be down to children being more regularly exposed to other coronaviruses. ,” Kevin Ng, Study author Doctoral candidate Francis Crick Institute, London