Most people are trying to avoid catching coronavirus, which makes sense.

Worldwide, citizens are trying to boost their immune systems and avoid hotspots for the virus, while some grocery franchises are going as far as to employ aisle monitors in their stores, to keep customers as far from each other as possible.

However, The Brussels Times has recently reported that a group of scientists is encouraging participants to volunteer to be injected with the virus, in an attempt to test new medications on infected patients.

If you’re thinking “no ways”, the laboratory in question will sweeten the deal with a cool £3 500 (over R72 000).

The London-based company, Hvivo, owned by the Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre, is looking for 24 willing subjects who will be injected with 229E and OC43, two mild strains of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.

Patients who take the plunge will be given a specific diet during the trial and quarantined for 2 weeks, while new medications are tested on them. Luckily, participants are likely to only experience mild respiratory symptoms during the period.

The executive chairman of Hvivo’s parent company, Cathal Friel, proudly told local media that their lab is definitely at the “forefront of the fight against the outbreak”.

The clinical trial program has been named ‘FluCamp’, which is a strange choice. This isn’t summer camp.

The race to find a vaccine is happening worldwide. Per ABC News,

Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they’re pursuing different types of vaccines — shots developed from new technologies that not only are faster to make than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent. Some researchers even aim for temporary vaccines, such as shots that might guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed.

“Until we test them in humans we have absolutely no idea what the immune response will be,” cautioned vaccine expert Dr. Judith O’Donnell, infectious disease chief at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. “Having a lot of different vaccines — with a lot of different theories behind the science of generating immunity — all on a parallel track really ultimately gives us the best chance of getting something successful.”

Human testing does seem to be a necessary risk here, which explains the hefty sum set aside for participants in the study at the Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre.

A little extra cash never hurts.

[source:brusselstimes&abcnews]