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HomeNewsTrendsCoronavirus pandemic | Panic in Meerut after monkeys decamp with COVID-19 patients' samples

Coronavirus pandemic | Panic in Meerut after monkeys decamp with COVID-19 patients' samples

In the short clip that is being widely circulated one monkey can be seen sitting on a tree and chewing the sample collection kit.

May 29, 2020 / 18:55 IST
Representative image

In a bizarre incident that unfolded on the campus of Meerut Medical College in Uttar Pradesh, a troop of monkeys decamped with blood test samples from a laboratory technician on May 29.

The three samples that the monkeys ran away with had been freshly collected and the incident had caused great panic among people as they were collected from suspected coronavirus patients.

A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. In the short clip that is being widely circulated, one monkey can be seen sitting on a tree and chewing the sample collection kit. One social media user claimed that the video was made by the lab technician.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Meanwhile, SK Garg, Principal, Meerut Medical College, has informed that the missing samples were not COVID-19 throat swabs but blood samples. He added that these samples had not been collected for coronavirus test, but for other routine tests that are carried out on COVID-19 patients.

Moneycontrol News
first published: May 29, 2020 06:54 pm

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