Community Chat

[Mindy D]

More baby steps forward in the war against COVID-19. Results of two important peer reviewed studies are published in the journal, "Science" today.

First study:

The question, "Can people that have recovered from COVID-19 become reinfected again? Do they become immune? At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers infected the noses and lungs of nine adult rhesus macaque monkeys with the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus spread to both the upper and lower respiratory tracts of the monkeys. All nine monkeys became infected and developed viral pneumonia. All the monkeys survived the infection and were considered recovered after 28 days. A week later the monkeys were exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 again. NONE of the monkeys became ill. In other words, they moneys did gain immunity to the virus and did not become sick again when exposed to it. This is the first study published using this live virus to infect macaques and then attempt to reinfect them after their recovery.

The lead author of this study is Dr. Dan Baruch, the head of Beth Israel's Center for Virology and Vaccine Research. The center is affiliated with Aragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard.  Rhesus macaque monkeys are often used in research and are similar to humans in that they share 93% of their genetic make up with us. The study does not determine if this immunity is permant.

Second Study:

The same researchers, at Beth Israel, used 35 rhesus macques. 25 of the monkeys were vaccinated against the virus using the six different DNA vaccines and 10 were not. The lab currently has six prototype vaccines they are working on. They are DNA type vaccines. None of these prototype vaccines are the ones developed for testing in humans. There is existing scientific skepticism of the potential of DNA vaccines in humans, so none of them have ever been licensed.
In this second study, all of the vaccinated monkeys developed antibodies, with some of the monkeys developing antibodies at the same level as that of humans that have recovered from COVID-19 infections. The researchers then infected all of the monkeys with the virus. None of the vaccinated monkeys were found to have high levels of the virus in their lungs while all ten of the unvaccinated monkeys did. These results could lead to more research utilizing DNA vaccines. Thus, providing another area of potential 

DNA vaccine protection against SARS-COV-2 in rhesus macaques by Jingyou et al. Science, May 20, 2020. DOI: 10.1126/science.abc6284

SARS-COV-2 infection protects against rechallenge in rhesus macaques by Abishek Chandrasekhar et. Al. Science. May 20, 2029. DOI: 10.1126/science.abc4776

[glorlious]

I also saw that study about the monkeys which sounded promising.  There was also an article this week about 13 of our sailors which recovered from the virus and then were reinfected.  There's just so much still unknown about this awful virus.

[suzyQ3]

This  is promising news, especially for those of us waiting to hug family members who are recovered. I hope that it pans out.

[Mindy D]

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@glorlious wrote:

I also saw that study about the monkeys which sounded promising.  There was also an article this week about 13 of our sailors which recovered from the virus and then were reinfected.  There's just so much still unknown about this awful virus.

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@glorlious @I heard about this. The problem is that they could have still been ill with the original virus. I'm hoping the sailors are studied. We need more research with them. Could they have had influenza first and the COVID-19 virus later? Were they infected with one virus strain and with another virus the second time? Had the virus just not left their systems at the time of the second testing. Was the test just picking up left over viral RNA rather than the full virus particle. Could people shed remnants of the virus without being contagious? Are the results due to the type of test used? These scientific questions need to be answered.