LONDON – UK medical ethics authorities on Wednesday approved controversial trials that will deliberately infect healthy and young volunteers with coronavirus in order to better understand the impact of the virus on the human body and accelerate development of the vaccine.
The trials, called human challenge trials, will be the world’s first to target Covid-19 and will initially involve up to 90 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30, the government said on Wednesday. They are scheduled to start in London in March, with $ 47 million in support from UK government funding initially announced in October.
With doctors and scientists watching 24 hours a day, researchers will inject closely controlled doses of coronavirus into the noses of quarantined volunteers. This group of volunteers will not have received vaccines. The idea is to start with the minimum possible amount that allows researchers to assess infection levels, symptoms, and transmission methods while trying to ensure the safety of volunteers.
If all goes well, a second phase of trials is planned that includes the use of vaccines (researchers have not specified which ones) to test for protection against symptoms and possibly transmission. The vaccines would be given to healthy volunteers, who would then be deliberately infected with coronavirus, again in closed areas to contain the virus.
Scientific and medical ethics views on the proposed trials have been mixed since the UK unveiled its plans in October, with this week’s green light turning the UK into an abnormal pandemic. Previous previous trials have focused on malaria, typhus, cholera, and the flu.