Monkey studies encouraging on producing COVID-19 vaccine, researchers say

Monkeys who survive coronavirus infection immune to reinfection

Two studies in monkeys offer some of the first scientific evidence that surviving COVID-19 may result in immunity from reinfection, as well as a positive sign that vaccines under development may succeed. In one of the new studies, researchers infected nine monkeys with the new coronavirus. After they recovered, the team exposed them to the virus again and the animals did not get sick. In the second study, the same researchers treated 25 monkeys with experimental vaccines and then exposed them to the coronavirus. In the vaccinated animals, “we saw a substantial degree of protection,” Dr Dan Barouch told Reuters. Barouch, a researcher at the Centre for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Centre in Boston, and his colleagues published both studies on Wednesday in the journal Science…