On July 18, 1921, the first infant was inoculated with a live bovine strain of bacteria (
Mycobacterium bovis). His mother had died from an infection with the closely related human pathogen
M. tuberculosis following his birth at a Paris hospital a few hours earlier. The child’s grandmother, who would care for him, also had tuberculosis (TB). In an attempt to protect the newborn from the disease, doctors gave him an oral dose of what was later named Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, for its developers Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin. The duo had cultured
M. bovis for more than a decade until it no longer caused disease in animals.
CentralAsia: Ученые намеренно заразят коронавирусом добровольцев, чтобы выяснить эффективные методы профилактики
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Коронавирус испытают на людях
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Researchers urgently want to know how long the current crop of effective COVID-19 vaccines protect against infection and also would like a quicker and more efficient way to test the efficacy of new vaccines. They are trying to check both of those boxes by studying antibody levels in people already exposed to the new coronavirus. A study at Oxford University is deliberately exposing previously infected healthy young volunteers to the coronavirus again, using blood tests to learn what level of antibodies will protect people against getting sick again. "It may be not possible to reinfect with an antibody level above a certain amount," lead investigator Helen McShane told NPR News. When researchers find that level of antibodies — or antibody cutoff titer — they can develop blood tests to determine how long vaccines are effective. A separate study involving the U.S. government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Fred Hutchinson
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To more fully understand vaccine-induced immunity, researchers are comparing antibody levels in people who received the Moderna vaccine but still got COVID-19 with levels in people who got the vaccine but didn t fall ill.
It took many months and tens of thousands of volunteers to gather the data showing that the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
But what if new vaccines are needed to deal with dangerous variants of the coronavirus? Waiting months is not an attractive option.
So researchers are trying to come up with tests that can be performed using a blood sample that will determine not only whether a vaccine will work but also for how long.