Two Triad universities will take part in a clinical trial focusing on COVID-19 vaccines and transmission of the virus among college students. 

The study will include students from Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University.

The goal is to see if someone can still get COVID-19 after being given both doses of the Moderna vaccine. It will also look at whether the vaccine prevents person-to-person spread of the virus.

The trial is being launched by the COVID-19 Prevention Network, which is headquartered at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

In the study, half of the participating students will be given the vaccine right away, while the other half will get their shots four months later. Close contacts of the participants will also be invited to take part.

Dr. Elizabeth Brown, who helped design the trial, says in a news release, “College campuses are model settings for studying transmission of infection, given that they are relatively closed populations.”

Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will also be participating in the trial.

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