Monkeys, ferrets offer needed clues in Covid-19 vaccine race

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How much must the shots rev up someone’s immune system to really work? And could revving it the wrong way cause harm?

Even as companies recruit tens of thousands of people for larger coronavirus vaccine studies this summer, behind the scenes, scientists are still testing ferrets, monkeys and other animals in hopes of clues to those basic questions.

In this April 2014 photo provided by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation-International Vaccine Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, a researcher holds a ferret at their facility in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2020, the lab is working with 300 ferrets developing a Covid-19 vaccine candidate and testing other vaccine candidates and therapeutics. — AP
In this April 2014 photo provided by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation-International Vaccine Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, a researcher holds a ferret at their facility in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2020, the lab is working with 300 ferrets developing a Covid-19 vaccine candidate and testing other vaccine candidates and therapeutics. — AP

“We are in essence doing a great experiment,” said Ralph Baric, a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina, US, whose lab is testing several vaccine candidates in animals.

With animals, “we’re able to perform autopsies and look specifically at their lung tissue and get a really deep dive in looking at how their lungs have reacted,” Kate Broderick, research chief at Inovio Pharmaceuticals, said.

Read the full AP story here.

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