COVID-19 Photograph:( AFP )
Scientists in the UK want to get to know the virus better, and to achieve this, they’re infecting 2,500 healthy volunteers with COVID-19
New strains of COVID-19 have stirred new fears among people. After the UK reported a new strain which is more contagious than the original, countries have stepped up measures to identify and isolate. The strain has already been spotted in different countries including Canada, and eight European countries have also found the strain in circulation.
Even though vaccination drives against COVID-19 have begun around the world, there’s a lot about the virus scientists still don’t understand.
Scientists in the UK want to get to know the virus better, and to achieve this, they’re infecting 2,500 healthy volunteers with COVID-19. They will attempt to understand how the virus behaves in the body, and how much it takes for the virus to develop, the Sun reported.
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The government has put out $45 million for the research, which will be undertaken by the Imperial College, the National Health Service’s Royal Free Hospital, along with a pharmaceutical company hVIVO.
Usually, such studies are shunned due to the ethical questions about infecting healthy people with a virus.
The project will begin in January, with the pilot results expected to come out in May. The volunteers - aged between 18-30 will be given an experimental nasal vaccine, after which they’ll be infected with the virus.
All volunteers will be paid $5,300 for their three-week stay at a hospital, where they will be monitored all day and night, as reported by Mail Online.
Based on this, scientists intend to ascertain how vaccines help in the prevention of COVID-19.
Earlier on Wednesday, British scientists had found that people who develop mild cases of COVID-19 also develop immunity which lasts for at least four months.