I have an issue with how we define infected and having a disease... Even at the beginning, 50% of people who tested positive for the virus didn't have any symptoms. We clearly already understand that there is a difference between SARS-nCOV-2 (the virus) and COVID-19 (the disease). If you never have symptoms, even if you encountered the virus, can it be said that you TRULY have the disease? Even if you test positive for the virus?
So for 50% of people (at least what we understood at the beginning), their immune system is sufficient to keep the virus at bay and never to allow an actual disease to develop.
Well, what about those who have better immune systems, who encounter the virus, and their system knocks it down before the virus has enough time to multiply enough to even turn up positive on a PCR has had the virus. But they will never exhibit symptoms and won't test positive.
If a single SARS-nCOV-2 virion enters your system, attaches to one cell, and starts forcing that cell to multiply more virus, you have been infected. If your immune system is so strong that you sufficiently repel the virus from attaching to any further cells, you have beaten the infection.
By our current rhetoric, we base "having COVID" on "testing positive", rather than on "having symptoms of a disease". Well, the only difference between an asymptomatic positive and the example I just gave, of encountering the virus, having a small infection, and beating it, is the degree of viral load.
So is there a true #neverCOVID cohort? Perhaps. But I'd argue that the #neverCOVID cohort must include all asymptomatic cases of the virus, even with a positive test. Because the only difference between them and someone who knocked down the virus before reaching sufficient viral load to trigger a PCR is amount of virus, not whether they've been infected at all.
So is #neverCOVID the group who encountered the virus and handled the infection without symptoms? Or is it ONLY the group who encountered the virus and handled the infection without symptoms, but did so efficiently enough to fool a PCR test into coming up negative?