SERRANA, Brazil – While Covid-19 rages across Brazil, killing nearly a quarter of a million people, its high infection rates have made the country the perfect testing ground for vaccines.
Now Brazil is using its accident to help answer one of the pandemic’s most pressing questions as millions of people worldwide are being vaccinated: Can someone who has been vaccinated still transmit the virus?
In the first global experiment of its kind, researchers began a project Wednesday to vaccinate the entire adult population of Serrana, a hard-hit commuter town of 45,000 people in São Paulo state, ahead of the rest of the country.
They say the results will help the world’s scientists understand how quickly vaccines can curb the coronavirus pandemic. And vaccinating an entire city will counter Brazil’s growing anti-vax movement and demonstrate the broader benefits of mass immunization, such as a rapid economic recovery expected with a rapid reopening of Serrana.
“It gives us information on the percentage of people who need to be vaccinated to achieve immunity to herds – no one knows this yet,” said Marcos Borges, a professor of medicine at the University of São Paulo in nearby Ribeirão Preto, who is in charge. about the study.