LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to allow the exposure of volunteers to the COVID-19 virus to advance medical research on the pandemic.
The test, which will begin within a month, will see up to 90 healthy volunteers aged 18-30 exposed to COVID-19 in a safe and controlled environment to increase understanding of how the virus affects people, the government said.
To make the test as safe as possible, the version of the virus that has been circulating in England since March 2020 will be used instead of one of the new variants.
The study will initially seek to establish the least amount of virus needed to cause the infection, he said. The volunteers could then receive vaccine candidates before being exposed to the virus.
Volunteers will be rewarded for participation.
British Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the study would help find the best and most effective vaccines for long-term use.
“These human challenge studies will take place here in the UK and will help to speed up scientists’ understanding of how the coronavirus affects people and can eventually promote the rapid development of vaccines,” he said.
The government’s vaccine task force, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the clinical company hVIVO, which pioneered human viral challenge models, are working on the study.
Reporting by Paul Sandle, edited by Sarah Young and Christian Schmollinger