THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR

SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that has won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.

ONE of the oddest parts of this pandemic is the way that accepted scientific facts – accepted universally – were smeared as conspiracy theories and misinformation.

From almost the very start of the crisis, I was convinced there was more immunity to Covid in the population than estimated.

Doomsday models that were closing down the economy and society were based on there being zero pre-existing protection, but that was not the case.

The human immune system is a fascinating and complex network that none of us will ever fully understand.

What we do know, however, is that it’s not just about antibodies. T cells perform a vital function in recognising and killing cells infected with viruses, including Covid. So I suspected many of us had some form of immunity – and several studies have since supported this.

One that has just been shared is perhaps the most convincing. UCL scientists tracked health workers during the first Covid wave and found around one in 10 had almost certainly been exposed to the virus but never tested positive or developed Covid antibodies.

Something else was keeping the virus at bay – T cells. Blood samples from the staff proved they had high levels of them.

When this was first suggested there were howls of laughter and snorts of derision. What other fair arguments have been unfairly ignored or suppressed?

My PhD was in the immune system so I have a reasonable idea about what’s going on. I’m pleased the significance of T cells is now being properly understood.

They’re the unsung heroes of our immune system. Antibodies have hogged the limelight for too long.