Studies in monkeys show that coronavirus immunity holds up in vaccine treatments
Little is known about how our immune systems respond to COVID-19, but studying how rhesus monkeys respond to the virus could help. (Pixabay/)Two new studies in monkeys offer more signs, though very preliminary, that humans may develop immunity after being vaccinated or recovering from COVID-19. Using a series of prototype vaccines—ones used for medical research only and not intended for human use—researchers found that the interventions prevented rhesus macaques from becoming infected by the novel coronavirus. In a related experiment, macaques that tested positive for the virus were protected from re-infection when they encountered it a second time. The findings were reported in the journal Science on May 20.“These data suggest that natural protective immunity to this virus indeed exists,” says Dan Barouch, a coauthor of the two studies and the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “These...