Hmmmmm. I wonder if this study will help us.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/unlike-clinical-...yURL_share
Medical studies often use thou-sands of volunteers. But some-times good things come in small packages—like a handful of people willing to contract a deadly virus.
Researchers in the U.K. have deliberately infected 30 volunteers with the virus that causes Covid-19, in the first human challenge study of the disease. Infecting the volunteers—who are healthy, unvaccinated and range in age from 18 to 30—will allow the scientists to observe in real time how the virus attacks the body and, from the moment of exposure, how the immune system responds.
The volunteers are under 24-hour study in a hospital residential facility, allowing the researchers to, among other things, measure their viral load twice daily in the nose and throat, perform multiple blood tests, collect urine or stool samples if needed and measure antibodies in the mucus from the respiratory tract and in the blood, according to Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medi-cine at Imperial College London and a co-investigator on the study.
“Because we can take so many different samples, we can get extraordinary insight into how the virus causes disease,” Dr. Open-shaw said. “We are learning more about the twists and the tails this virus has and the ways it can cause problems in other organs. It’s all very important in learning how to prevent those complications.”
Human challenge studies are different from randomized clinical trials, the primary way researchers find out if vaccines and other therapies are safe and effective.
In clinical trials, researchers take a large number of people, give half a vaccine and half a placebo, and send them on their way to be naturally exposed to the virus, said Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. A clinical trial in the U.S. of Covid-19 vaccines used more than 30,000 volunteers.
But similar studies have been used for centuries, at times raising ethical concerns.
Before a Covid-19 vaccine or other therapies were available, the idea of intentionally infecting people with the deadly virus that causes the disease also generated debate, and a primary goal of the U.K. study is to determine the lowest possible dose of virus required to make volunteers sick so that scientists can study the disease while placing participants at minimal risk.
The study, which began in March and is expected to conclude in September, has already revealed new information, the researchers said, but because their findings have yet to be published, they wouldn’t disclose the details. The Imperial College London research is supported with an investment of £33.6 million, equivalent to $46 million, from the U.K. government, an amount expected to support this and future research.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/unlike-clinical-...yURL_share
Medical studies often use thou-sands of volunteers. But some-times good things come in small packages—like a handful of people willing to contract a deadly virus.
Researchers in the U.K. have deliberately infected 30 volunteers with the virus that causes Covid-19, in the first human challenge study of the disease. Infecting the volunteers—who are healthy, unvaccinated and range in age from 18 to 30—will allow the scientists to observe in real time how the virus attacks the body and, from the moment of exposure, how the immune system responds.
The volunteers are under 24-hour study in a hospital residential facility, allowing the researchers to, among other things, measure their viral load twice daily in the nose and throat, perform multiple blood tests, collect urine or stool samples if needed and measure antibodies in the mucus from the respiratory tract and in the blood, according to Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medi-cine at Imperial College London and a co-investigator on the study.
“Because we can take so many different samples, we can get extraordinary insight into how the virus causes disease,” Dr. Open-shaw said. “We are learning more about the twists and the tails this virus has and the ways it can cause problems in other organs. It’s all very important in learning how to prevent those complications.”
Human challenge studies are different from randomized clinical trials, the primary way researchers find out if vaccines and other therapies are safe and effective.
In clinical trials, researchers take a large number of people, give half a vaccine and half a placebo, and send them on their way to be naturally exposed to the virus, said Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. A clinical trial in the U.S. of Covid-19 vaccines used more than 30,000 volunteers.
But similar studies have been used for centuries, at times raising ethical concerns.
Before a Covid-19 vaccine or other therapies were available, the idea of intentionally infecting people with the deadly virus that causes the disease also generated debate, and a primary goal of the U.K. study is to determine the lowest possible dose of virus required to make volunteers sick so that scientists can study the disease while placing participants at minimal risk.
The study, which began in March and is expected to conclude in September, has already revealed new information, the researchers said, but because their findings have yet to be published, they wouldn’t disclose the details. The Imperial College London research is supported with an investment of £33.6 million, equivalent to $46 million, from the U.K. government, an amount expected to support this and future research.
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