An entire Brazilian city will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in a giant experiment to test whether the vaccines reduce the spread of the virus.
The city of Serrana in the state of São Paulo is home to about 30,000 adults who will be offered a COVID-19 vaccine within the next three months as part of a research study conducted by the Butantan Institute in Brazil.
Everyone in the city over the age of 18 (except pregnant or breastfeeding women and those with serious illnesses) is offered the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Chinese company Sinovac, CNN reports. The aim of the study, known as ‘Project S’, is to determine whether the vaccine will reduce the spread of the virus.
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While clinical trials have clearly shown that the Sinovac and other COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of symptomatic diseases, the information remains as to whether vaccines can prevent infections (even asymptomatic) completely. Some of the earliest tips suggest that at least some vaccine can prevent infections; A few weeks ago, the University of Oxford published data indicating that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could slow the spread of the virus, Live Science reported earlier.
Of course, each vaccine is likely to differ in its ability to prevent infection simply because each one has the effectiveness of preventing mild or serious illnesses. Last month, the Butantan Institute announced that the CoronaVac vaccine has a 50.4% efficacy against symptomatic infection in Brazil, Live Science reported earlier. According to The Associated Press (AP), CoronaVac was still 100% effective against death.
People will move in and out of the city and participation in the study – which has already begun – is not necessary, but is expected to be high, the AP reported. Participants will be monitored for up to one year, but the first results are expected to be in twelve weeks, according to the AP.
“Based on what we are going to learn here, we will be able to tell the rest of the world what the real effect of the vaccine against COVID-19 is,” Ricardo Palacios, director of clinical studies at the Butantan Institute, told CNN.
The announcement of this study led to a rush to buy and rent property in Serrana, with people showing up in hopes of becoming residents to take part in the study and get the vaccine, according to The Guardian. According to the AP, officials said they needed a history of residence to register for the trial.
Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the new coronavirus, with nearly 10 million COVID-19 cases and more than 242,000 deaths so far, according to The Johns Hopkins Dashboard. According to the AP, the vaccine supply has been declining and is running out in several cities. However, a special group of vaccines has been designated for this study, so there is no risk of it running out in Serrana.
Originally published on Live Science.