Covid scientist infects himself with virus TWICE to study antibodies & says the hopes for herd immunity are 'overblown' The Sun, A News UK Company Close Your Sun Editions News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services.
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Covid scientist infects himself with virus TWICE to study antibodies & says the hopes for herd immunity are ‘overblown’ A COVID scientist infected himself with the virus TWICE to study antibodies - and has concluded that the hopes for herd immunity are overblown.
Dr Alexander Chepurnov, 69, caught Covid-19 for the first time in February while skiing in France - but he reinfected himself to test if he still had antibodies.
⚠️ Read our for the latest news & updates 3 Dr Alexander Chepurnov caught the virus twice - leading him to the conclusion that herd immunity is overblown Credit: The Siberian Times 3 The scientist purposely infected himself with coronavirus for the second time Credit: The Siberian Times After returning home to Siberia when he first caught the killer virus, Dr Chepurnov and his team at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine launched a study into Covid antibodies.
He found that the antibodies decreased rapidly, reporting: "By the end of the third month from the moment I felt sick, the antibodies were no longer detected."
To further the study, Dr Chepurnov then purposely reinfected himself with coronavirus to see if he had any immunity.
He deliberately exposed himself to patients who were positive with the virus while wearing no protection.
"After two weeks it was no longer detected in the nasopharyngeal or in other samples."
After completing his studies, the scientist concluded that the hope of herd immunity is overblown and futile.
Immunity via vaccine or transmission may only work as a temporary block of the virus, according to the findings.
He said: "We need a vaccine that can be used multiple times, a recombinant vaccine will not suit.
"Once injected with an adenoviral vector-based vaccine, we won't be able to repeat it because the immunity against the adenoviral carrier will keep interfering."
This comes as Vladimir Putin boasted that a second Covid vaccine had been perfected by Russian boffins - and that a third is in the pipeline.
Herd immunity refers to where enough people in a population have immunity to an infection to be able to effectively stop that disease from spreading.
Herd immunity is typically best achieved with .
While the term herd immunity is widely used, it can carry a variety of meanings.
The NHS outlines “herd immunity” as when enough people in a community are vaccinated against a disease, making it more difficult for it to spread to susceptible individuals who have not yet been or cannot be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, in the UK, - and may never reach natural levels of protection.
Scientists at Imperial College London said immunity is “waning” and noted a 26 per cent drop in positive antibody tests in three months.
In a briefing with journalists, Professor Helen Ward, who worked on the study, said their findings suggest the UK is a "long way" from reaching herd immunity.
"So I think we are a long, long way from any idea that the population will be protected by other people."
3 Herd immunity is unlikely, studies in both Siberia and the UK have said Credit: Vector Topics Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed .
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