Scientists are applying for permission to infect healthy volunteers with Covid-19 amid fears the number of cases in the UK has fallen so steeply that it will be difficult to test potential vaccines.
The health research company Hvivo, which runs a quarantine laboratory in east London, has joined scientists who say the world needs a vaccine so urgently that researchers should resort to a controversial method known as a “human challenge study”.
Under Hvivo’s proposals, up to 100 paid volunteers aged between 18 and 30 will take part — half will receive an experimental vaccine and half a placebo. All will be exposed to the virus and monitored for symptoms. Typically, volunteers are paid up to £3,500.
