British researchers plan to infect volunteers with the corona virus from January 2021. A vaccine has never been tested in this way, but according to the scientists it is crucial to be able to accelerate the development of the coveted vaccine.
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Rather than testing the vaccine in the usual way – by waiting for vaccinees to become infected at home or in their daily lives – researchers want to expose the volunteers to the virus in a controlled environment. In a first phase, scientists will look for the smallest dose of the virus that can infect humans. 90 healthy volunteers between 18 and 30 years old will receive such a dose. Then, later in the spring, the scientists hope to inoculate volunteers with promising vaccines and then expose them to the virus to see how well the vaccines protect them. The British government will decide which vaccines will be involved.
No cure yet
The research is not well received everywhere. Indeed, many experts question whether such research is acceptable, largely because there is as yet no effective treatment for Covid-19. The researchers at Imperial College London said they would use the antiviral drug remdesivir, but that drug has barely any impact on survival, according to the World Health Organization.
Also, only young, healthy volunteers will initially be involved in the study, meaning that the findings may not fully apply to the people most at risk, namely the elderly and those with underlying health problems.
But for the time being, we still have to wait until January. The study has yet to be approved by the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The British government has already announced that it wants to invest 34 million pounds in the research.
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