UK to infect up to 19 people to study Covid
UK government signs contract for first coronavirus human challenge studies
By Mick Krever and Phil Black, CNN
Updated 0826 GMT (1626 HKT) October 20, 2020
Why she is volunteering to get infected with Covid-19 03:26
London (CNN)The UK government has signed a contract for the first human challenge studies for the
novel coronavirus, in which healthy volunteers are deliberately infected with the virus in a controlled setting, and some receive an experimental vaccine.
Up to 19 volunteers at a time will take part in the tests, to be held at the Royal Free Hospital in London, which houses a Biosafety Level 3 ward. They will be run by hVIVO, a medical research company that specializes in running challenge trials, in partnership with Imperial College London.
These clinical trials will be a little different from most.
In a challenge trial, by contrast, participants are deliberately dosed with virus.
Proponents of
challenge trials say that they are more efficient, requiring far fewer volunteers -- likely in the hundreds -- because researchers know for certain that everyone will be exposed to the virus, and that they can deliver scientific data more quickly.
Critics worry about exposing people to a virus for which there is no fail-safe treatment, and say that the young, healthy volunteers are not representative of the wider population.
Human challenge studies: UK government signs contract for first clinical trials - CNN