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An entire Brazilian city will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in a giant experiment to test whether vaccines reduce the spread of the virus.
The city of Serrana, in the state of São Paulo, is home to around 30,000 adults who will all 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) will be offered the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Chinese company Sinovac, CNN reported. 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 Sinovac and other COVID-19 vaccines decrease the chances of developing symptomatic disease, data on the ability of vaccines to completely prevent infections (even asymptomatic) remains limited. Some of the early clues suggest that at least some vaccines can prevent infections; A few weeks ago, the University of Oxford released data indicating that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could slow the spread of the virus, Live Science previously reported.
Of course, each vaccine will likely differ in its ability to prevent infection, just as each has different effectiveness in preventing mild or severe illness. Last month, the Butantan Institute announced that the CoronaVac vaccine was 50.4% effective against symptomatic infection in Brazil, Live Science previously reported. Still, CoronaVac was 100% effective against death, according to the Associated Press (AP).
People will be allowed in and out of the city and participation in the study – which has already started – will not be required but should be high, the AP reported. Participants will be followed for up to a year but the first results should arrive in 12 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 COVID-19 vaccination is,” said Ricardo Palacios, director of clinical studies at the Butantan Institute. CNN.
The announcement of this study caused a rush to buy and rent property in Serrana, with people arriving hoping to become residents so they could participate in the study and get vaccinated, according to The Guardian. But officials said they would need a residency history to register for the trial, according to the AP.
Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the novel coronavirus, with nearly 10 million COVID-19 cases to date and more than 242,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard. Vaccine stocks are dwindling and are already exhausted in several cities, according to the AP. But a special batch of vaccine has been designated for this study, so there is no risk of exhaustion in Serrana.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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