Tag Archives: Alex Greer

by Faith Ridler

The volunteers who are DELIBERATELY catching Covid: 2,500 Britons will take part in the world’s first ‘human challenge trials’ run by Imperial College next month in bid to accelerate research on pandemic

• Alex Greer, 20, will take part in the human challenge trials in London next month 
• Those in the study will receive a vaccine before being exposed to coronavirus 
• Volunteers, aged 18 to 30, will be paid up to £4,000 for two-to-three week stay 

Around 2,500 Britons will deliberately be infected with coronavirus in the world’s first ‘human challenge trials’ which will begin next month in a bid to accelerate research on the pandemic.

Alex Greer, 20, is among those who have volunteered to take part in the research, which is due to begin at the Royal Free Hospital in London in January.

In the initial study, announced by the Government in October, around 90 volunteers under the age of 30 will receive a dose of an experimental nasal vaccine before being deliberately infected with Covid-19.

Professor Openshaw previously told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the trials could give a ‘really firm idea’ of whether a vaccine will work and how it will work….

The Government has put £33.6million behind the challenge trials.

Imperial College London will sponsor the first part of the study, where volunteers are infected with Covid-19, before moving on to the second stage where vaccinated volunteers will be exposed to the virus.

The study is being designed by hVIVO, a subsidiary of Dublin-based pharmaceutical company Open Orphan, which today announced it had secured funding from the Government.

Link here to read the full Daily Mail article