The United Kingdom will become the first country in the world to allow vaccine testing against it COVID-19 in volunteers who will be deliberately infected with SARS-Cov-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease.
According to the Financial Times, the trials are expected to begin in January with government funding at a safe health facility in east London, where young and otherwise healthy volunteers will be quarantined for a few weeks. They will first be given one of the test vaccines and after about a month they will be given a dose of coronavirus.
The tests will be led by the British pharmaceutical testing company hVivo, with the participation of Imperial College. Details are expected to be announced next week.
The aim of the tests will be to evaluate more quickly the most promising vaccines that have been developed against the coronavirus.
Speaking to the newspaper, Dominic Wilkinson, a professor of medical ethics at Oxford University, expressed support for the plan, saying "we are facing an unprecedented global threat from Covid and it is an ethical imperative to conduct well-controlled studies in developing a vaccine and then identifying the best vaccines. "
The UK's Drug and Health Regulatory Authority, which has to approve these so-called "challenge trials", said they could be useful for vaccine development and that the safety of volunteers was a top priority.
Source: KYPE