If you haven't tested positive for COVID-19 by this point in the pandemic, you might be feeling pretty lucky.
It could be that you wear a mask everywhere you go or you wash your hands all day long, but there is a chance you could have had the disease and didn't know, and it's more likely than you might think.
Who are the COVID-19 dodgers?
After adjusting for the size of each age group, statistics show that people aged between 70 and 79 have been infected in the lowest numbers, with men in that age group amounting for 12,048 cases per 100,000 and women of the same age making up 10,504 cases per 100,000.
This means the people aged between 70 and 79 have had the least COVID-19 infections compared to other age groups.
This is followed by people aged over 80 years, and then those aged between 60 to 69.
The age group with the fourth-lowest number of cases per 100,000 people is children aged under 10 years, with boys amounting for 13,896 cases per 100,000 and girls 13,764 per 100,000.
People in their 20s have been infected in the highest numbers, with men in this age group making up 22,716 cases per 100,000 and women 26,154 per 100,000.
Young adults were made to wait the longest to become eligible for vaccination and are more likely to work in high-risk settings such as hospitals, supermarkets, bars and cafes.
But what might be some of the reasons why you haven't caught COVID-19?
You might be lucky
It's almost been two-and-a-half years since the World Health Organization first declared COVID-19 a pandemic. So, if you haven't caught COVID-19 by now, there's likely some luck involved.
More that 9.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in Australia throughout the pandemic to date.
It's impossible to say how many people haven't caught the disease but, with Australia's estimated population of more than 25.8 million people, there are still plenty of people who have not reported an infection.
However, there is some research that looks into how many people have actually had COVID-19, there's more on this later.
Infectious diseases specialist Paul Griffin says luck could definitely play its part, but it might not be as straightforward as that.
Research, Dr Griffin says, has found that people with higher levels of memory T-cells from other coronavirus infections — such as the ones responsible for common colds — are less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2.
You might have had it without knowing
Dr Griffin says there's a very high chance that you've had COVID-19 without knowing.
"In some studies, where we've taken blood from the blood bank or had volunteers in studies and tested for antibodies, it has shown that around half the people in those studies have had exposure or probably been infected and didn't know," he says.
It's possible you were unknowingly exposed to COVID-19 and never developed symptoms, or your symptoms were so minimal you passed them off as hay fever or a cold.
It could also be the case that you have taken a RAT when positive with COVID-19 but haven't done it properly, so it hasn't returned an accurate result.
Here's what the research says
The only one way to really know if you've been previously infected is through a blood test, which can determine the difference between antibodies generated by vaccine and ones generated by an infection.
An infection generates antibodies against proteins that make up the virus sphere, called the nucleocapsid, so if a lab test picks up high enough levels of nucleocapsid protein antibodies, it’s a good sign you've been infected in the past few months.
A study by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) and UNSW Sydney's Kirby Institute looked for COVID-19 antibodies in 5,185 samples taken from blood donors between late February and early March this year.
They estimated that, by the end of February 2022, at least 17 per cent of Australian adults — around 3.4 million people — had been infected, and that the vast majority occurred during the Omicron wave.
This means the number of people infected with COVID-19 would have been at least double what was officially reported.
An updated blood survey found at least 46 per cent of Australian adults had been infected with COVID-19 by early June.
You might just be doing everything right
Dr Griffin says that, if you're following all of the recommended hygiene practices to avoid COVID-19 infection, you're doing something right.
"The first thing is being vaccinated and, certainly, people who are up to date with their vaccines are well protected against this disease."
He says that, if you're implementing these steps into your life, it's helping to stop your chance of infection:
- mask wearing
- social distancing
- practising good hygiene
- ensuring your spaces are well ventilated.
Dr Griffin says it also depends on how social you are.
"It might depend on how likely a person is to attend crowded events or other high-risk venues, if people aren't necessarily doing a lot of that, then it will reduce their risk."
He says that, if you're sticking with behaviours that have helped you dodge infection so far, there's no reason that you might not stay protected and avoid it, but his words come with a warning.
"I think if people get complacent, having thought they've achieved something by now and stop doing all of those things, then there's every chance that they will go off and get infected, probably in the not-too-distance future."
