Elon Musk’s SpaceX conducted a study of antibodies to coronavirus, more than 4.3 thousand employees of the company volunteered and took part in it. Research published in Nature Communications and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The workers called by the volunteers donated blood for analysis. Together with Musk, the study was led by the heads of the company’s medical division.
The authors of the work concluded that a certain threshold of antibodies may provide longer lasting protection against coronavirus. They also found that people who had COVID-19 in a milder form and with fewer symptoms produced fewer antibodies. Accordingly, such people are less likely to receive longer lasting immunity.
The study was co-authored by Galit Alter, a research fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. “People may have antibodies, but this does not mean that they will be immune to COVID-19,” Alter said.
According to scientists, the results of the study will help determine who is most vulnerable to coronavirus and should be vaccinated first. For example, people without antibodies in areas with high infection rates may receive priority.
Earlier in February, Elon Musk reported on the successful chipping of the monkey. His company Neuralink has a wireless monkey in its brain that can play video games with it.
In August 2020, Musk said that specialists from his company Neuralink successfully chipped pigs. Engineers managed to implant the implant into the animals’ brains, and then remove it without harm to their health. Using the chip, scientists were able to monitor the activity of the tactile centers of the animal’s brain via a wireless communication channel. Neuralink was founded in July 2016.