Some 140 million Americans have had COVID-19 in the past, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The estimate is drawn from blood tests and would mean 43 percent of the American population has strong and long-lasting protection against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The blood samples are from commercial laboratories that have been working with the CDC to conduct seroprevalence surveys. They are testing for antibodies to the CCP virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2. About 6 percent of the U.S. population was estimated in August 2020 to have antibodies to the virus. That number crept up over time, and jumped from 33.5 percent to 43 percent between December 2021 and late January, the latest results reported. Nearly 60 percent of children 18 or younger have had COVID-19, according to the estimates, along with close to half of Americans aged 18 …