Meet the Covid ‘super-dodgers’: From a teacher who somehow escaped virus that ravaged his classrooms to the 68-year-old business owner who thinks he must have ‘special blood’

It is one of the greatest mysteries of the Covid pandemic.

How have thousands of people managed to never get infected, despite being so obviously exposed to the virus?

Still others who have battled Covid and accepted numerous vaccines still manage to pick up the virus with seemingly ease.

So-called Covid ‘super dodgers’ have even baffled scientists.

Could their apparent immunity be simply due to sheer luck? Is it possible instead that they goods infected at some point in the past three years, but never picked up by tests?

Or could it all be explained by their possessing some kind of superpower, one that makes them naturally covid-resistant? Researchers tasked with understanding the phenomenon believe this is indeed the most likely answer.

This week, scientists discovered what they think is genetic evidence to support the theory.

But for now, super dodgers are left scratching their heads, wondering why or how they managed to last so long without falling victim to the nasty symptoms of Covid…

Music teacher Peter Gates finds it an ‘odd’ that he managed to dodge Covid for so long.

The 60-year-old guitarist regularly visits four secondary schools to teach music to students and says he often comes into contact with the virus.

Mr Gates, who lives in Hemel Hampstead, added that his wife Phan (47) and his seven-year-old twin daughters Amelia and Elizabeth had all contracted the virus during the pandemic. But oddly enough, he didn’t.

“I did lateral flow tests every day last year and you would think if I was asymptomatic one of them would have worked,” he told MailOnline.

“But none of them were positive.”

And while he didn’t have the vaccine when he first went back, Mr. Gates still managed to avoid Covid during those first few months.

He said, “I have a friend who is a doctor and he suggested that maybe I had contracted it and was asymptomatic and didn’t realize it.

‘Because I am a teacher, we had to do sidestream tests twice a week.

“All through the pandemic I was testing and if I caught it I’m sure one of them would have worked.”

Janet Baily64 from Birmingham, has diabetes and was understandably concerned that her health condition would make her more vulnerable to Covid.

But three years later, she claims never to have had the virus.

The mother-of-three, who works in finance, was given the vaccine as soon as she qualified, but still doesn’t think it’s the cause of her immunity.

Ms Bailey says she has been around relatives with confirmed Covid and taken public transport during rush hour and somehow managed to avoid it.

For example, Ms Bailey’s 27-year-old daughter, Laura-Jane, was infected twice and both times she lived at home.

Mrs Bailey said: ‘She had a little snooping around first and we went for lunch on a Sunday.

“I tasted her cocktail and I tasted her food, we shared utensils, we were close and hugged.

“The next day she took a test and she had Covid.”

But Ms. Bailey’s test came back negative.

She said, “There were so many people living with me who had it and I never got it. I do not know why.’

David Bot68, from Upminster in Essex, is another who is surprised he never caught Covid.

He runs a family business that installs shutters in people’s homes, but managed to avoid the bug during the pandemic.

Mr. Bone has had diabetes controlled with an insulin pump for 35 years.

Describing himself as a positive person, he said: ‘I wasn’t too worried about getting Covid.

“I didn’t do my best to get it, but I didn’t lock myself in the house.”

He added, “The whole family had it, why didn’t I get it?”

Mr Bone explained that he even escaped infection when his wife had Covid, despite the two sharing a bed while she was ill.

No idea how he evaded it for so long, Mr. Bone joked that he might have “special blood.”

Amber Vasquez45, a graphic artist living in Texas, says she feels immune to Covid.

Somehow she never caught it — despite several visits to the hospital at the start of the pandemic.

In March 2020, as Covid started, her daughter Athena, 20, suffered a major spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down.

“We were in the hospital for about five days and eventually everything went back to normal,” she told MailOnline.

“But for a while we were in and out of the hospital with her — and she never got Covid and I never got Covid.”

Ms Vasquez added: ‘Me and my daughter have both been in the same situations and neither of us ever caught it.

‘Not even a sniff. We tested every time we were exposed.”

Ms Vasquez confesses that she was out of shape and previously smoked 20 cigarettes a day, so she was concerned about what could happen if she contracted Covid.

She said: “I was afraid I was going to die when the pandemic first started.

“I had a friend the same age who was also overweight, and he died.

And I thought I was next.

“I spent the first year waiting to die.

“But now that I feel immune, I’m not going to try to get it.”

Mike Thorn67, from Ramsgate in Kent, says he’s ‘famous’ for not getting sick.

The plumber continued to work during the pandemic and while he was initially worried about contracting Covid, he eventually decided that there’s no point in worrying about that.

And to this day, Mr. Thorne has not tested positive for Covid.

This is despite both his wife Cherise, 47, and daughter Imogen, 20, contracting Covid.

However, his immunity may run in the family. The father-of-two said that as far as he knows, his son Alexander 22 has also dodged the virus.

Mr. Thorne said, “My son is much like me, we both heal easily and quickly and don’t catch much.”

“I can’t remember the last time I had a cold.

“Seriously, at least it was longer than five years ago.

“I can be around people dribbling out of every gap and I don’t catch anything.

“I’m quite famous for it.”