Get a short URL
Musk’s actions against coronavirus pandemic have been highly controversial. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX reduced the risks of SARS-CoV-2 and said U.S. authorities were overcoming coronavirus-related deaths, but at the same time helped California hospitals purchase equipment used to treat people with severe cases of COVID-19.
It looks like Elon Musk can add another line to his curriculum vitae (who knows, maybe one day he’ll need it). The 49-year-old, who designs new modes of transport and is on his way to rejuvenate space travel, has tried his hand at healing as he and his company SpaceX have commissioned a study into a coronavirus, The Wall Street Journal reported. Musk is even listed as the co-author of the study.
The pandemic of coronavirus halted the world in the spring of 2020. For SpaceX, this was particularly devastating as the company prepared to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in May. To continue working and to limit the spread of the disease, the chief medical officer of Musk and SpaceX decided to conduct an investigation. With the help of doctors and academic researchers, they wanted to create an antibody testing program as well as find out how the immune system reacts to the virus.
More than 4,000 SpaceX employees volunteered to take part in the study. Over three months, they underwent a blood test. Of the 4,000 SpaceX employees tested multiple times, 300 received contracts with COVID-19.
Scientists say they have enough data from 120 people to examine the cause of diseases and antibodies in more detail and come to conclusions, although they acknowledge that their research could be extended to because the median age of this small group of people is 31 and more than 90 percent of them are male. The issue here is that people from one age group with COIVD-19 have different effects than people from another group.
Antibodies are not a guarantee
According to the study’s findings, people with mild cases of COVID-19 – mild fever, sniffles, and cough – did not generate enough antibodies and were less likely to meet the threshold required for immunity. long-term implementation.
“People can have antibodies, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be immune [to the coronavirus]”, said Galit Alter, co – author of the study who is a member of the Ragon Institute MGH, MIT and Harvard.
The scientists involved in the research said health experts could use the results to decide who is most vulnerable to the infectious disease, so who should get the vaccine first.
The study is important because scientists are still trying to determine how the immune system responds to SARS-Cov-2, especially how long immunity lasts and whether humans can re-infection. Having sufficient knowledge of immunity will allow the authorities to better deal with the pandemic and speed up the eradication process.
A recent study by Public Health England showed that most people who have contracted the virus are protected from contracting it again for at least five months. However, the study revealed one worrying detail for the scientists – some people got the disease again and, even when it was asymptomatic, they had high levels of the virus and they could give it to others.