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Daily Mail – 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
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
Daily Telegraph – When will a Covid-19 vaccine be ready in the UK? Latest updates from around the world
ByAnnelies Gartner ; Lizzie Roberts and Christopher Hope,
Volunteers could soon be deliberately infected with coronavirus in trials to speed up a vaccine and discover if people are protected if they have already had the disease.
In a groundbreaking trial, scheduled to begin in January at the Royal Free Hospital in London, patients will be inoculated with a vaccine developed by Imperial College, and then exposed to coronavirus.
“Challenge trials” are controversial, but can give a quick answer about whether a vaccine is effective and several Nobel laureates have called for them to take place.
Oxford University is also intending to use a similar “challenge trial” to test whether people have protective immunity from the disease if they have been previously infected.
Both groups of researchers are currently hunting for a “salvage therapy” that would be given as a last resort if the vaccine did not work before they can begin the trials and will need approval. The trials will be funded by the Government.
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What’s the latest news in the hunt for a vaccine?
The Imperial trial is being run by hVIVO, a spin-off company from Queen Mary University of London. Already roughly 2,000 people have signed up to take part in challenge studies in Britain through the group 1Day Sooner.
Those testing the vaccine will be given the jab and will then wait a month for antibodies to build. The volunteers will then be exposed to the virus…
Link here to view the full Telegraph article