The number of new infections is on the rise and France is suffering a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic. For researchers, this represents a “opportunity”, To continue their clinical trials and bring precision to their scientific studies.
Studies at a standstill
Some clinical trials were temporarily halted last summer, “for lack of patients”. Many hypotheses have been made about the coronavirus and researchers have tried to find compelling evidence. Paradoxically, this second wave gives them the opportunity to find answers to certain unresolved medical questions. They can carry out certain projects and study the impact of the Sars-Cov-2 virus on patients. This is the case of the study on the effects and possible preventive benefits of nicotine on the coronavirus or of the BCG vaccine which would protect against Covid-19 disease. When the researchers launched their trials, the number of volunteers logically decreased with the number of patients, because it was at the end of the first wave of the epidemic.
The second wave relaunches research
Currently, some of these studies are resuming, such as the French clinical trial on BCG, at the Institut Pasteur in Lille. This is what Camille Locht, research director, announced: “This study started quietly. The protocol foresees that we arrive at approximately 1,200 patients who enter the clinical trial. For a long time, we were around a hundred, and today there are a few hundred. We therefore relaunched the various centers that had recruitment problems. I hope now that it will speed up“. In addition, at the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP), nursing staff are recruited to apply nicotine patches and assess its potential effects on the disease. The French population would be more interested in science and would know that she can get involved in research projects on the coronavirus. This is rather good news for scientists and Camille Locht, who hopes to obtain results on the possible protective effect or not of the BCG vaccine on Covid-19, next summer.
