Studies on macaques suggest that infection with the coronavirus grants some immunity to catching it again—and that vaccines also seem to offer some protection.
The questions: Does getting infected by the coronavirus make you immune? And can a vaccine do the same job? In two studies published today in Science, a group led by researchers at Harvard University’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is answering those questions using monkeys called macaques.
Becoming immune: First, the team infected nine monkeys with the coronavirus; they developed pneumonia, just as people do. Then, after five weeks, the researchers tried infecting them again, but this time the virus didn’t take hold. That means monkeys (and possibly people) are probably immune to the virus after they catch it, although how long immunity lasts remains an open question
Creating immunity: The group then tried out four different DNA vac