Around 60 million Americans went through the bulk of the coronavirus pandemic without contracting the virus, new data has revealed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reckons around 77.5% of Americans over the age of 16 had anti-bodies from at least one prior infection by the end of 2022.
That would suggest 55.8 million Americans – or one in four people – managed to avoid catching Covid as of December 2022. That is more than three years since the virus hit US soil.
The CDC also revealed seniors were the age group least likely to contract Covid, with 56.5% of those aged 65 years and over having natural antibodies. Young adults however had the highest infection rates.
Data from the CDC suggests Vermont, which has a considerable elderly population, had the lowest number of people to have been infected at just 64.4%. The remaining Covid dodgers were Maine (65.4%), Maryland (66.5%), Virginia (69.7%) and Oregon (70.2%), reports the Daily Mail.
The states avoiding Covid mostly had elderly populations. Meanwhile Iowa, had an infection rate of around 90.6%.
That was followed by North Dakota (88.5%), Oklahoma (86.5%), Nevada (85.2%) and Indiana (85%).
Overally, 96% of Americans were thought to have antibodies from Covid, the CDC found. Although this includes those from the vaccinations.
The data used samples from 140,000 Americans taken every three months. It tests whether the antibodies are from infection or the vaccine.
