One of the reasons that COVID spread so quickly last year is because it was a new virus, that most believe had been genetically manipulated in a lab in Wuhan, China, before it leaked out.

We had not seen it before and as a result there was no natural immunity to the virus in the human population. As a result, the virus spread rapidly, impacting those with underlying health issues and particularly those over the age of 65.

According to a recent report by US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a recent survey of blood donations (1.7 million samples from all 50 states), discovered that over 83% of Americans over the age of 16 now have COVID antibodies. CDC has been sampling blood for antibodies since 2020.

This is up from 3.5% of Americans who were reporting antibodies in July 2020.

This increase is a result of having either caught the virus or receiving a vaccine. According to The Blaze, the CDC study does not include other forms of immunity from T-cells that vaccines such as Pfizer provide.

Many believe that COVID will always be with us, but as this immunity against COVID builds in the human population, some suggest it will eventually turn into something similar to what we experience with the annual seasonal flu.

And similar to the flu, having previously been vaccinated or previously caught the virus will provide some resistance to the future variants.

As ABC News explains:

It is possible, experts say, that COVID-19 could become a seasonal illness, like the flu. Virologists call this an “endemic” disease — one that is constantly circulating among us. In the years and decades to come, many people will be exposed to it in childhood and develop some immunity, which would protect them later in life against serious disease.

READ: CDC study finds over 80% of US adults have some immunity to COVID, notes prior infection offers similar protection as vaccine AND COVID-19 could become a seasonal illness like the flu, experts say

We will have to learn to live with COVID.