People all over the world are joining a petition called "1 Day Sooner" to deliberately be exposed to coronavirus after getting injected by an experimental vaccine. Exposure to the virus would occur within a controlled setting.
According to the founders of the organization from the United Kingdom, "accelerating the development of just one additional safe and effective vaccine" by one day may save up to 1,250 lives. Speeding up vaccine development for three months can potentially save over 100,000 lives.
As of the moment, over 38,000 volunteers from 166 countries have signed the petition either to volunteer in the human trials or to show support as advocates. Those who have joined the campaign believe that the virus will continue to affect daily life until effective vaccines are available.
Nearly 100 vaccine candidates are currently in animal testing phases, while about 40 candidates are undergoing human clinical trials. Even fewer vaccine candidates are in the final stage of trials, such as Novavax (USA), Moderna (USA), CansSino Biologics (China), and Murdock Children's Research Institute (Australia).
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford were also in phase three of human trials. Still, they were temporarily on hold due to one of the volunteers developing a transverse myelitis condition. Transverse myelitis is the inflammation of one section in the spinal cord, affecting the central nervous system.
1 Day Sooner
Participants of 1 Day Sooner will participate in human challenge trials (HCT). Participants will receive a vaccine candidate then be deliberately exposed to the virus. Medical experts will then observe the participants closely and study the progress of infection in real-time.
The human challenge trials are not meant to replace phase three of vaccine trials but complement the final stage of clinical testing. HCT will give researchers insight into how much immunity antibodies can offer and help determine the administered vaccine candidate's efficacy faster than the limited participants in phase three trials.
According to a study in The Lancet journal Infectious Diseases, young people between the ages of 20 to 29 have a 1:3,300 risk of dying after getting infected with the coronavirus. Another study said that there is a one in 14,000 chance of the same age group dying from the disease.
Of course, those belong to high-risk groups and have preexisting conditions are excluded from the HCT. The trials may also help determine the long-term or permanent organ damage caused by the coronavirus.
Measuring the Risk of Human Challenge Trials
Human challenge trials have existed for over a hundred years and played an essential role in developing vaccines for some illnesses such as cholera, malaria, and typhoid. HCTs have also helped in the development of drug treatments and antibiotics.
Terence Stephenson from the UK's Health Research Authority (HRA) said that the campaign would have its risks. The HRA approves any research involving human trials by evaluating the medical ethics of proposed studies. Stephenson noted that many frontliners are risking their lives every day to care for others. "People who, in their judgment, might be willing to do that for the benefit of wider society -- I don't personally find that surprising."
18-year old Alastair Fraser-Urquhart, who volunteered for the campaign, said that the personal risk is small if he "can potentially protect thousands of other people from having to be infected without consenting to it. If ever it's the time to push the boundaries and discover how quickly we can do stuff, and how well we can do stuff, and to take on risks for other people, it's now."
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