Coronavirus: Survivor sets up immunity group uniting people willing to volunteer for scientific research

Diana Berrent hopes database will help provide 'more definitive information' to scientists and researchers

A coronavirus survivor has started a Facebook group to unite individuals who have already had Covid-19 and are willing to contribute to scientific research to help defeat the disease.

The Facebook group, titled Survivor Corps, was set up by Diana Berrent and has over 13,400 members.

Ms Berrent, 45, described the group to Fox News as a grassroots effort to connect survivors with research institutions.

Currently the page only exists as a public Facebook group that anyone can join, but Berrent expressed hope that the project would ultimately become an opt-in database of survivors.

“I was one of the lucky people and my body naturally created the antibodies to fight off the virus within my system so I now have the antibodies in my plasma, in my blood,” Ms Berrent told Fox News.

She hopes the group will help provide “more definitive information“ to scientists and researchers as they work on effective treatments and vaccines.

“All of the information that we’re lacking right now, we have in our blood and plasma – we have the answers. But we need to create an efficient system to connect the survivors with the researchers,” she told the broadcaster.

Ms Berrent, from Long Island, described her experience with coronavirus to The New York Post after testing positive on 18 March​.

The mother-of-two told the newspaper she was one of the first people in her area to be infected.

After surviving Covid-19, which can cause serious respiratory complications in some patients and can be fatal, Ms Berrnet said she felt a sense of responsibility, and that there was no time to lose in using her experience to try to help find a cure.

“By mobilising individuals and directing them to those in need, this effort could bring about lifesaving services and support to individuals and communities in need, keep essential businesses operating and help get people back to work, and foster a spirit of togetherness that is urgently needed to weather this crisis longer-term,” the group's Facebook page states.