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Why Scientists Want to Infect People With Covid-19
The concept of a human challenge trial for Covid-19 is gaining momentum. A challenge trial means healthy volunteers would be purposefully infected with Covid-19 in order to test a vaccine. The idea is that this would speed up the normal vaccine testing process. Traditional phase 3 clinical trials sign up thousands of participants, inject some with a vaccine and others with a placebo, and then wait for people to encounter the virus in everyday life. In a challenge trial there’s no waiting on people to catch a virus. But a challenge trial for Covid-19 could be especially risky, since some people react to the virus much more severely than others (even if they are young). The story below is one of the most comprehensive on the debate.
