New Research Suggests 43% Of Americans Contracted COVID-19 Over 2 Years

A new study is giving researchers a better idea of how many people have ever had COVID-19.

The study is by the CDC and looks at antibody data from across the country. They estimate that 45.7 percent of people in Oklahoma have had COVID-19 at some point over the past two years. The study looked at antibody testing from private labs across the country.

Researchers specifically only looked for anti-nucleocapsid proteins. This antibody is only produced by the body after an infection with the virus. It is not present in the blood of people who got the vaccine but never had COVID. Based on this data, they estimate that 43 percent of all Americans have been infected at some point.

 In Oklahoma, about 1.8 million people have had it, which is much higher than confirmed positives released by the health department.

OU's Chief COVID Officer Dr. Dale Bratzler says the data could provide answers about immunity. 

"As we know, having the infection does give you some natural immunity and so that may account for the fairly rapid decline in cases we saw since the Omicron surge which infected so many people in our state and across the country," said Bratzler.

The study estimates 140 million Americans have had COVID, which is almost double reported cases.