One highly debated method involves injecting healthy adults with live coronavirus. Vaccine trials are usually slow and cumbersome because researchers have to recruit thousands of patients and then wait for some of those people to be exposed to the virus naturally in their communities. In a challenge
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase, it is clear an effective vaccine is urgently needed. With experts predicting 12 to 18 months before a vaccine is available, some scientists are considering unconventional ways to speed up the process. One highly debated method involves injecting healthy adults with live coronavirus.
In a challenge trial, healthy adult volunteers are divided into two groups. One group receives a placebo and the other receives the potential vaccine. After enough time has passed for the vaccine to cause the appropriate protective immune response, both groups are then injected with the virus, revealing whether or not the vaccine offers some level of protection.
Only healthy adults with no underlying conditions would be permitted to undergo the virus challenge in the first step designed to test the effectiveness of a coronavirus vaccine. The next step, designed to test the safety of the vaccine, would enlist the help of the adults who are most at risk to severe symptoms of COVID-19, including the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions.
The matter is an ethical dilemma. Should fully informed adults be allowed to risk their lives for the good of society? Doctors, nurses, firefighters, police and military members routinely choose to risk their safety for the benefit of others. Is this any different? The website 1 Day Sooner is already recruiting volunteers who are willing to take that risk.
Bhatt echoed,"When doing a trial like this, we need to consider the implications for justice. This trial has to be conducted in a fair, equitable and ethical way. ... I would be very concerned about the vulnerable who struggle with literacy, or are poor, or are with their backs against the wall being taken advantage of. Health equity is also an ethical imperative here."In 1932, the Public Health Service and Tuskegee Institute set out to observe the natural course of syphilis.
According to the 1 Day Sooner website,"There is a consensus among ethicists that trial participation should in no way cost participants money. Therefore, participants should be compensated for travel expenses, lost work time, injuries, follow-up care, and the like."
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