LONDON – UK medical ethics officials gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for controversial tests that will deliberately infect young, healthy volunteers with coronaviruses to better understand the impact of the virus on the human body and accelerate vaccine development.
The tests, called human challenge tests, will be the first in the world targeting Covid-19 and will initially involve up to 90 volunteers aged 18 to 30, the government said on Wednesday. They are scheduled to start in London in March, supported by $ 47 million in UK government funding initially announced in October.
With doctors and scientists waiting 24 hours a day, the researchers inject controlled doses of coronavirus into the nose of quarantined volunteers. This group of volunteers will not have received vaccines. The idea is to start with the smallest amount possible that allows researchers to assess levels of infection, symptoms and methods of transmission while trying to ensure the safety of volunteers.
If all goes well, a second stage of testing is planned to include the use of vaccines – the researchers have not specified which ones – to test how well they protect against symptoms and possibly transmission. The vaccines would be administered to healthy volunteers, who would then be purposely infected with the coronavirus, again in closed places to contain the virus.
Scientific and medical ethics views on the proposed trials have mixed since the UK unveiled its plans in October, with this week’s go-ahead making the UK a pandemic case. Previous challenge tests focused on malaria, typhoid, cholera and flu.