Only half of participants who were exposed to the coronavirus developed infections, most with mild symptoms.
Study participants reported symptoms typical of other respiratory infections, such as runny noses and sore throats. Fevers were less common.Healthy, young people who were intentionally exposed to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 developed mild symptoms — if any — in a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 human-challenge study. Such trials present a unique opportunity to study viral infections in detail from start to finish, but are controversial because of the risks they pose to participants.
However, some researchers question whether the insights yielded by the study so far are important enough to justify the risks to participants, such as the potential for long-term side effects. “In my mind, it’s still not entirely clear whether these studies are ethically justified, and I’m waiting to see what else they’ve found,” says Seema Shah, a bioethicist at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
The most common symptoms were typical of other respiratory infections: sore throats, runny noses and sneezing. Fever was less common, and no one developed the persistent cough that had been used as a hallmark of COVID-19, says Catchpole. Around 70% of infected participants lost their senses of smell or taste — another COVID-19 signature — to varying degrees. Such problems persisted for more than six months in five participants and more than nine months in one.
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