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’s one of the greatest mysteries of the Covid pandemic.

How have thousands of people managed to avoid ever getting infected, despite so obviously being exposed to the virus? 

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

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

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

Or could it all be explained by them possessing some kind of superpower, one that makes them naturally Covid-resistant? Researchers tasked with getting their heads around the phenomenon think that is, indeed, the most likely answer. 

Just this week, scientists discovered what they think is genetic proof to back up the theory.

But for now, super-dodgers remain scratching their heads, wondering exactly why, or how, they’ve lasted so long without falling victim to Covid’s pesky symptoms… 

Music teacher Peter Gates believes it is an ‘oddity’ he has managed to dodge Covid for so long.

The 60-year-old guitarist visits four secondary schools regularly to give pupils music lessons, and says he obviously often comes into contact with the virus. 

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

‘I was doing lateral flow tests every day last year and you would have thought if I was asymptomatic one of them would have worked,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘But none of them were positive.’

And even though 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 I may have caught it and been asymptomatic and didn’t realise. 

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

‘All during the pandemic I was testing and had I had caught it I am sure one of them would have worked.’ 

Janet Bailey, 64 from Birmingham, is diabetic and was understandably worried her health condition might leave her more vulnerable to Covid.  

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

The mum-of-three, who works in finance, got the vaccine as soon as she was eligible, but still doesn’t think that explains what’s causing her immunity.

Ms Bailey says she has been around family members with confirmed Covid and taken public transport during rush hour and has still somehow managed to dodge it.

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

Ms Bailey said: ‘She just had a little sniffle at first and we went out to Sunday lunch.

‘I was tasting her cocktail and I had a taste of her food, we were sharing utensils, we were close and hugging each other.

‘The next day she did a test and she had Covid.’

But Ms Bailey’s test was negative.

She said: ‘So many people lived with me that had it and I have never got it. Why, I do not know.’

David Bone, 68, from Upminster in Essex, is another who is surprised that he never caught Covid.

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

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

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

‘I didn’t go out my way to get it, but I didn’t lock myself in the house.’

He added: ‘All the family has had it, why didn’t I get it?’

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

Clueless how he has dodged it for so long, Mr Bone joked that maybe he had ‘special blood’.

Amber Vasquez, 45, a graphic artist who lives in Texas, says she feels immune from Covid.

Somehow, she has never caught it — despite making several visits to the hospital at the beginning of the pandemic. 

In March 2020, when Covid kicked off, her daughter Athena, 20, had a major spinal incident and was paralysed 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 caught Covid and I never caught Covid.’

Ms Vasquez added: ‘Me and my daughter have both been in the same situations and we have both never caught it. 

‘Not even a sniffle. We tested every time we were exposed.’ 

Ms Vasquez confesses to not being in the best shape and previously smoked 20 cigarettes a day, so she had been concerned about what could happen if she caught Covid.  

She said: ‘I was scared I was going to die when the pandemic first started.

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

‘And I thought I was next. 

‘I spent the first year waiting to die.

‘But now I feel immune, I am not going to try to get it.’

Mike Thorne, 67, from Ramsgate in Kent, says he is ‘renowned’ for not getting ill. 

The plumber continued to work throughout the pandemic and although he was concerned about catching Covid at first, eventually he decided there is ‘no point worrying about it’.

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

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

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

Mr Thorne said: ‘My son is a lot like me, we both heal easily and quickly and do not catch much.’ 

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

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

‘I can be around people dribbling form every orifice and I don’t catch anything.

‘I am quite renowned for it.’