How well do vaccines keep COVID from spreading? UNC students will help figure that out.

UNC-Chapel Hill researchers are testing how well COVID-19 vaccines prevent people from spreading the coronavirus to others, as part of a new nationwide study.

UNC-CH is recruiting 600 college students, who have not yet been vaccinated or had COVID-19, to participate in the trial.

“This is a really rigorously designed trial to try and help us understand what you can do once you’re vaccinated,” said Audrey Pettifor, a scientific lead in the study. She is also a professor and epidemiologist at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are highly effective at preventing symptomatic illness, hospitalizations and death. But how well do they work at preventing any asymptomatic infection or transmission to other people?

The Prevent COVID U study of about 12,000 college students at 22 colleges and universities across the nation looks to answer that question.

College COVID vaccine study

The study, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, launched last week. Results are expected in late August or early September.

“This will help inform science-based decisions about mask use and about social-distancing post vaccination,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a recent White House COVID-19 response press briefing.

The study is looking at college students because young people are particularly at risk for getting and spreading the virus, as seen by the large number of COVID-19 cases tied to college campuses in 2020.

Some observational studies of health care and essential workers have shown the vaccines are 90% effective at preventing asymptomatic infections. But that involves specific people who got vaccines early and were likely to be more concerned about COVID-19 and take more precautions than this randomized group college students, Pettifor said.

The study will also help inform the vaccine’s effectiveness against variants.

How does the study work?

UNC-CH is looking for students who are 18-26 years old and plan to be around the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area this summer. Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem is also participating in the study.

Students who enroll will get the Moderna vaccine either immediately or in four months. They will get materials to swab their noses at home everyday and then drop those swabs off on campus once or twice a week for the next four months. Their roommates and close contacts may also be involved.

The study is randomized, but students will know when they are getting the vaccine. If someone changes their mind during the study and feels that they need to get the vaccine, that person can get vaccinated and still participate in the trial.

If any student tests positive for COVID during the trial, then their close contacts will also join the study and swab their noses for 14 days. That’s how the researchers will test the transmission of the virus.

UNC-CH students can make up to $900 through the course of the study. They can sign up and get more information about the study at preventcovidu.org or by emailing preventcovidunc@unc.edu.

Pettifor said students who want to should get vaccinated when they are eligible, but those who aren’t as eager could participate in this study.

“Students have sort of been like the bad guys in this pandemic,” Pettifor said. “It’s all about how they’ve been misbehaving ... and this is an opportunity for them to participate in a meaningful, positive way to answer a really important scientific question.”

For now, just UNC-CH students are eligible, but they hope to open it up to other local schools in the next few weeks.

What can people do once vaccinated?

Current CDC guidelines for vaccinated people say that they can hang out in small groups inside without wearing a mask. People who are vaccinated can also get together with vaccinated people from one other household without masks, if those individuals are not high-risk.

The vaccination keeps you from getting sick, not necessarily from getting the virus. Pettifor said some young people don’t think getting COVID-19 themselves is a big deal, but are worried about spreading it to their families.

If people know the vaccine also protects the people around them, that would be a motivator for people to get vaccinated, she said. And this study will help.

“It’s not just about you, it’s knowing that if you hang out with you parents or grandparents you’re not going to make them sick,” Pettifor said.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus vaccination clinic opens March 31 in the Student Union and will start distributing 2,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.