The ‘super-immune’ residents living in an Italian town
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The small, rural Italian town of Vo' Euganeo was sealed off after recording Europe's first Covid death. But now some locals in the village have been dubbed the 'super-immunes' as their blood-tests show that they have an extraordinarily high number of antibodies which have grown rather than fallen as they've contracted the virus. What does this tell us about the fight against Covid-19?
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guests:
-Tom Whipple, Science editor at The Times.
-Tom Kington, Rome correspondent at The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's been a while since most of us have had the chance to travel, so today let me take |
| 0:08.3 | you on a little tour. On the road out of Padua in Northern Italy, nestled in the lush |
| 0:15.3 | green hills above the city, is the little town of Vaugh. Until last year it was a pretty |
| 0:22.4 | unremarkable place, but when the pandemic hit, the little town of Vaugh became the front |
| 0:28.7 | climb in Europe's fight against the virus. The whole of the world was looking at |
| 0:33.4 | and thinking, oh my god, that's where COVID is. Do we have it contained there? |
| 0:38.7 | If you're a regular listener, you might remember Vaugh. We talked about it last year when |
| 0:44.2 | it became the site of the first COVID death in Europe and the first lockdown. |
| 0:49.8 | Why, which was produced in the town, was being sent back because people didn't want to drink |
| 0:55.1 | because they thought they would have COVID. With its borders sealed, this little town became |
| 1:00.3 | the perfect petri dish, allowing scientists to find out more about the virus. Because whatever |
| 1:07.7 | happened in Vaugh would soon be replicated across Europe. We know this is a closed system, |
| 1:15.0 | we can start seeing how it affects people in different age categories, how it spreads, |
| 1:19.3 | how many people get infected. Regular, rigorous tests have been conducted ever since the outbreak |
| 1:25.6 | of COVID and now some of the results are in and they're remarkable. For in the town of Vaugh, |
| 1:33.6 | scientists have found a number of residents who appear to be super immune to COVID. |
| 1:40.2 | I could see that they were all kind of feeling very pleased for themselves and kind of bonding |
| 1:45.5 | over this as if they were the avengers or something. We know that antibodies fade over time, |
| 1:51.7 | that's why we'll all need vaccine boosters. So why, in the super immune residents of Vaugh, |
| 1:58.0 | have antibody levels been rising? And what does it tell us about the fight against the virus? |
| 2:05.2 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times, |
| 2:09.5 | I'm Manvin Rana, today, super immunity in the Italian town of Vaugh. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.