And that sort of process could explain people who do no catch this disease.
Biologists Discover Why 10 Percent Of Europeans Are Safe From HIV Infection
Date: April 3, 2005
Source: University Of Liverpool
Summary: Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.
Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.
Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-delta 32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean.
They have also been puzzled by the fact that HIV emerged only recently and could not have played a role in raising the frequency of the mutation to the high levels found in some Europeans today.
Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr Susan Scott from the University’s School of Biological Sciences, whose research is published in the March edition of Journal of Medical Genetics, attribute the frequency of the CCR5-delta 32 mutation to its protection from another deadly viral disease, acting over a sustained period in bygone historic times.
More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050325234239.htm
I don't know enough of cell biology to know if this particular immunity could also apply to the coronavirus, but something similar could be at work here - a small percentage are just not capable of catching a virus that uses the same pathway.
Unfortunately it seems to be tied to Northern Europeans:
Could the Black Death protect against HIV?
People who survived the Black Death could have passed on a mutation that prevents the human immunodeficiency virus entering cells.
David Nicholson(dn@davidnicholson.com)
Jul 12, 2001
LONDON Several teams of scientists around the world have, for some time, been studying the possibility that a genetic mutation perpetuated by the organism responsible for bubonic plague, or the Black Death, in the Middle Ages - Yersinia pestis - might give people now carrying the mutation increased resistance to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) compared to non-carriers. New research has thrown doubt on the micro-organism that was thought to have caused the Black Death, but the link to HIV resistance seems to remain.
<SNIP>
The Danish group rejected the idea that the mutation became more prevalent as a result of the Black Death because the epidemic began in Sicily (in the South) and spread north to Scandinavia. This direction of travel would have predicted that the prevalence of the mutation would have become higher in the South than in the North, which is the reverse of what actually happened.
Assuming that the mutation arose in Scandinavia, Eugen-Olsen's team concentrated on determining the time of the major spread of the mutation by examining bones found in Denmark, dating from the last Ice Age, around 8000 BC to 1950 BC. In particular, they focused on the time between 1800 and 2600 BC, a Mesolithic period of massive change and migration.
Their findings suggested that the CCR-5-Δ32 mutation was already highly prevalent in Denmark before the Black Death. Rasmussen reported: "There is support in the fact that the distribution of the Single Grave Culture in Northern and Middle Europe matches that of the high prevalence of 32Δ." This meant that an epidemic decimating the Stone Age population could explain the archaeological observations as well as the distribution of the 32Δ mutation.
They proposed that people with the genetic mutation were then more likely to survive the Black Death, passing on the mutation to current generations and conferring resistance to HIV.
More:
https://www.the-scientist.com/research-round-up/could-the-black-death-protect-against-hiv-54468
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