The study has been published in Nature. Researchers at University College London, UK, have said that next generation vaccines for COVID-19 should aim to induce a response against ‘replication proteins’, essential for the very earliest stages of the viral cycle.
COVIDsortium analysed the immune responses in a large cohort of healthcare workers in London, from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Some of these healthcare workers appeared to have a low-level infection which was undetectable by routine tests, but which generated T cells specific to SARS-CoV-2. These individuals also had a low-level increase in another blood marker of viral infection.
