Professor, 69, risked his life by deliberately catching COVID-19 to test his immune response

A former researcher at the Vector Centre of Virology and Biotechnology, and current senior researcher at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental medicine, professor of virology Chepurnov first got infected at the end of February 2020. Picture: Alexander Chepurnov

The virologist experimented with his own health to check how long the body’s immune response lasted after his first bout of  COVID-19.

A former researcher at the Vector Centre of Virology and Biotechnology who currently works at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Chepurnov was first infected at the end of February 2020. 

‘I was on my way to a skiing holiday from Siberia to France with a stopover in Moscow,’ he said. ‘After getting to the mountains I felt unwell with a high fever and sharp chest pain. My sense of smell has gone, too.’

It was impossible back then to do a COVID-19 test in Europe, he told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in Novosibirsk. 

Alexander Chepurnov, 69 now and 68 when he was first hit by COVID-19, said that he wanted to study the probability of getting re-infected

He cut the holiday short, returned home to Novosibirsk, and was promptly diagnosed with double pneumonia. 

A month later in March he did a test which showed antibodies to Covid, confirming that he had been infected with the new virus.

‘I was the first in my team who had COVID-19,’ he said. ‘We started to follow the way antibodies ‘behaved’, how strong they were, and how long they stayed in the body. 

‘The observation showed that they were fast to decrease. By the end of the third month from the moment I felt sick the antibodies were no longer detected.’ 

The scientist, 68 when he was first hit by COVID-19, said that he wanted to study the probability of getting re-infected. 

Alexander Chepurnov's conclusion is that there will be no collective immunity to coronavirus despite earlier hopes. Picture: Alexander Chepurnov

To test the strength of his own immune response, Chepurnov deliberately exposed himself to COVID-19-positive patients wearing no protection.

‘My body’s defence fell exactly six months after I got the first infection. The first sign was a sore throat. The nasopharyngeal PCR smear immediately showed a positive reaction to COVID-19 on the 27th cycle, and two days later already on the 17th cycle, which corresponds to a high viral titre’, Chepurnov said of the second bout.

The second illness was more acute, with Chepurnov needing hospitalisation after his saturation fell below 93.

‘For five days, my body temperature remained above 39C,’ he said. ‘I lost the sense of smell, my taste perception changed. 

‘On the sixth day of the illness, the CT scan of the lungs was clear, and three days after the scan the X-ray showed double pneumonia.

‘The virus went away rather quickly - after two weeks it was no longer detected in the nasopharyngeal or in other samples.’

EpiVacCorona and SputnikV COVID-19 vaccines, and researchers at Vector's centre of virology and biotechnology. Pictures: Vector, Russian Ministry of Health

His conclusion is that there will be no collective immunity to coronavirus despite earlier hopes.

The virus is here to stay for a long while, and while vaccines may give immunity this is likely to be temporary. 

‘We need a vaccine that can be used multiple times, a recombinant vaccine will not suit,’ he said.

‘Once injected with the adenoviral vector-based vaccine we won’t be able to repeat it because the immunity against the adenoviral carrier will keep interfering.’

His former employer Vector centre is manufacturing Russia's second vaccine which will require a repeat dose.