England will become the first country in the world to intentionally infect healthy volunteers with COVID-19 in what is known as a “human challenge study”. The country’s medical ethics body approved the trial on Wednesday.
The $ 47 million study, funded by the UK government, will play a critical role in continuing the development of effective corona vaccines and treatments, officials said.
The first challenge study of its kind is expected to commence in the coming month, involving up to 90 carefully selected healthy volunteers aged 18-30. They are compensated for their time.
During the trial, the volunteers will be exposed to the smallest amount of the virus necessary to cause infection, in a “safe and controlled environment”, to better understand its effects. The study will use the version of the virus that has been circulating in the UK since March 2020, not the new variants
Officials noted that medics and scientists will monitor participants closely 24 hours a day, stressing that the March 2020 species “has been shown to be low risk in young healthy adults.”
They hope to identify the smallest amount of virus needed to cause an infection. The trial will also help doctors and scientists understand how the immune system responds to the virus and identify factors that influence how it is transmitted.
“While very positive progress has been made in vaccine development, we want to find the best and most effective vaccines for longer-term use,” Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement. “These human challenge studies will take place here in the UK and will help accelerate scientists’ knowledge of the impact of the coronavirus on humans and ultimately promote the rapid development of vaccines.”
The controversial study is different from typical vaccine tests, in which participants are given a vaccine or a placebo and then told to go through their daily lives. In that case, researchers expect some volunteers to eventually be exposed to the virus naturally.
However, challenging trials guarantee exposure in the hope of accelerating results. They have been used in the past to treat diseases such as malaria, typhoid, cholera, and norovirus influenza
After the first trial, a small number of volunteers could be given vaccine candidates who have passed clinical trials to determine which are the most effective. This week the UK has achieved its goal of vaccinating 15 million people with their first dose.
“We have obtained a number of safe and effective vaccines for the UK, but it is essential that we continue to develop new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19,” Clive Dix, interim chair of the Vaccines Taskforce, told BBC News . “We expect these studies to provide unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines have the best chance of preventing the infection.”