(20 Oct 2020) UK researchers are preparing to begin a controversial experiment that will infect healthy volunteers with the new coronavirus to study the disease in hopes of speeding up development of a vaccine.
The approach, called a challenge study, is risky but proponents say it may produce results faster than standard research, which waits to see if volunteers who have been given an experimental treatment get sick.
Imperial College London said Tuesday that the study, involving healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30, would be conducted in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and hVivo, a company that has experience conducting testing .
The Associated Press spoke with a few of those volunteers in September, and wanting to help end the pandemic was the reason they gave for volunteering.
Speaking from Bristol, student Estefania Hidalgo, born in Venezuela, said she is very aware what can happen to a country without resources.
She said volunteering was a way to: "gain some control over the situation and feel like I was doing something."
In the first phase, researchers will aim to determine the smallest level of exposure needed to cause the disease.
Researchers will then use the same challenge model to study how potential vaccines work in the body, the body's immune response and potential treatments.
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