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There are experimental records and clinical observations showing that exposure to sub-infective doses of some pathogens can result in enhanced immunity to infection when exposed to an infective dose of the same pathogen later. In vitro studies show that T-cell immunity can be a key role player in this process and antibody production may be minimal or absent.

What is known about the acquired resistance to COVID-19 in people who are exposed to repeated sub-infective doses?

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  • How would one go about doing such a study?
    – Bryan Krause
    Jun 12, 2020 at 19:36
  • @ Bryan Krause: By subjecting macaque monkeys to intermittent sub-infective (and possibly progressively higher) doses and measuring in-vivo and in-vitro cytokine responses to these doses. Further, having established the infective dose in macaques, seeing if that dose is now higher in those with this type of immunological training. Also, looking at in-vitro cytokine responses to viral exposure among two groups of humans; those with no history of likely exposure and those with high likelihood of sub-infective exposure e.g. healthcare workers and household members of infected patients. Jun 12, 2020 at 21:52
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    Maybe better to edit the question to say "in animals" then? Rather than "in people"?
    – Bryan Krause
    Jun 12, 2020 at 21:53
  • I echo @BryanKrause's comment. You specifically ask about "in people," not animals, and it seems difficult if not impossible to do such a study on humans. You can edit your question to correct this.
    – Carey Gregory
    Jun 13, 2020 at 16:21

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