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According to a study published Tuesday, some people who've never been exposed to the new coronavirus may nonetheless have T cells that react to it. Scientists think that's because those cells previously learned how to identify and fight coronaviruses that cause common colds.A type of white blood cell, T cells are a crucial part of the body's defence against a virus: They identify and destroy infected cells while also informing B cells about how to craft new antibodies. When you're infected, your immune system generates both antibodies and these white blood cells.Antibody levels can drop in the months following an infection, but memory T cells stick around for years and can help mount another attack should the same virus ever return.Recent research suggests that T cells that remember how to fight other coronaviruses may give people an immunological head start against the new coronavirus.
A positive sign for vaccination and/or herd immunity efforts—plus, it would also ensure that such efforts would succeed even if the virus mutates.
