The world’s first human COVID-19 challenge is about to begin.
The UK will infect 2,500 healthy volunteers with coronavirus to study how the infection behaves in the body – especially the amount needed before a person develops Covid-19, the Sun reported.
The government has budgeted $ 45 million for research, which is being conducted by Imperial College, the Royal Free Hospital of the National Health Service and the pharmaceutical company hVIVO, a pioneer in human viral challenge models.
Human challenge studies are not often used because of the high ethical questions about infecting healthy people.
The British, aged between 18 and 30, will receive a dose of an experimental nasal vaccine and then become infected. The project starts in January; scientists are waiting for the first results in May.
Alastair Fraser-Urquhart, 18, of Stoke-on-Trent, raised his hand because he wants to help “get the world out of the pandemic sooner.”
“I can’t let this opportunity to do something, to really do something, pass me by when I’m at such a low risk.”
Fraser-Urquhart and his fellow volunteers will be paid about $ 5,300 for their three-week stay at the hospital’s specialty disease clinic, where they will be monitored non-stop, Mail Online reported.
Later, researchers will use the human challenge model to find out how coronavirus prevention vaccines work.
On Wednesday, British scientists announced that people who had mild cases of COVID had developed immunity that lasted at least four months.